Deputy police commissioner responsible for crime detection Lt-Gen Shadrack Sibiya had no authority to transfer 121 KZN political killings task team (PKTT) dockets to SAPS head office in Pretoria, says Maj-Gen Petronella van Rooyen, head of the SAPS legal division.
According to KZN police commissioner Lt-Gen Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi, this was done to protect politically connected individuals.
Testifying at the Madlanga commission of inquiry on Thursday, Van Rooyen said the decision to move the dockets without consulting the provincial commissioner responsible for those cases was incompetent.
“It would mean there are things happening in the police that the provincial commissioner is accountable for but doesn’t have any knowledge of,” she said.
“That is problematic. It undermines the authority of the provincial commissioner to effectively manage police matters in that province.”
While national police commissioner Gen Fannie Masemola directed that the cases be taken back to KZN for further investigations, Van Rooyen said the process was supposed to be treated with sensitivity.
“Due to the nature of investigations, the PKTT dockets need to be treated with sensitivity. The dockets could not have simply been taken back to their respective police stations and investigated in the normal course.
“I say this because politically related cases are highly organised and executed through different role players, such as hitmen. They typically involve a conspiracy implicating well-resourced politicians and business people.”
Van Rooyen reiterated that police minister Senzo Mchunu did not have the legislative authority to disband the PKTT, “let alone [in] the manner in which he did”.
“Police ministers are not technocrats; their role is to advance the development of legislation and national police policy, particularly in key issues that require executive attention. A minister cannot prescribe or direct at an operational level how policy is to be implemented; that is to be left to the national commissioner.”
She said if Mchunu was of the view that the PKTT cases no longer warrant additional resources, he should have expressed his opinion to Masemola and not made the decision on his own.
“Implementation falls under the exclusive responsibility of the national police commissioner. It can never be appropriate for a minister to instruct the national commissioner not only to disband the PKTT but also to say the disbandment must be done immediately.”
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