The Madlanga Judicial Commission of Inquiry on Friday heard that the Political Killings Task Team (PKTT) was disbanded more than a year after the inter-ministerial committee (IMC) had recommended that specialised courts be established.
Suspended Police Minister Senzo Mchunu’s predecessor, Bheki Cele, proposed the establishment of the dedicated courts for politically-related cases at the IMC’s September 2023 meeting, according to evidence led at the commission.
During the meeting, the proposal was supported by Deputy Police Minister Cassel Mathale, and then Justice and Correctional Services Minister Ronald Lamola also commended the PKTT for its good work and indicated that the progress was indeed visible.
Mathale also called for the task team to be enhanced at the meeting.
The IMC also made a decision at the September 2023 meeting that the PKTT cannot be dissolved and that it must continue.
“What objective or scientific information did you have to support that decision in circumstances where a year earlier, your own colleagues, after seven years of engagement with this process, had come to the point where they specifically say, take as a resolution that the task team cannot be dissolved and it must continue?” asked evidence leader Advocate Mahlape Sello SC.
In addition, she quizzed Mchunu on what changed between September 2023 and December 31, 2024, when he disbanded the PKTT, as there were plans to take the issue of political killings even further by establishing dedicated courts
In his response, the minister stated that there was a marked decrease in political killings starting from 2023.
He said there were 11 by 2023, and then they went down to seven, and then in March this year, there was one.
“Generally, the call in the seventh administration, when we came in, was to reduce murders in South Africa; it doesn’t say reduce political killings, it says murders, so we have to listen to that, it says the murders are the face of crime in South Africa.
“In other words, we have crime, all categories of crime, but the face that attracts everybody in the world and makes everybody fear for their lives, and it’s murders, the rate of murder in South Africa, which is reflected by figures year or year,” Mchunu explained.
He said the focus shifted not exclusively but inclusively, and inclusive of the figure that PKTT did not deal with.
“And that is the murder of people, which happens to be way higher than those that PKTT is dealing with. Now we couldn’t respond to that; we had to respond to that, to say, so the call for SAPS, minister, is to deal with murders in South Africa,” Mchunu explained.
The commission of inquiry is investigating allegations of criminality, political interference, and corruption in the criminal justice system, chaired by retired Constitutional Court Justice Mbuyiseli Madlanga.
