Crimefighting continues in face of ‘grave national security concern’ — Masemola, Ramaphosa on shock accusations

South Africa will soon know who will act as its national Crime Intelligence boss – after the unit’s head, Dumisani Khumalo, was arrested and serious accusations about dodgy policing emerged.

In a statement on Monday, 7 July 2025, the South African Police Service (SAPS) said National Commissioner General Fannie Masemola would announce this week who would fill the Crime Intelligence position.

This comes after its head, Dumisani Khumalo, was arrested along with six colleagues on 26 June 2025.

Read more: Khumalo arrest — cops warned that Crime Intelligence clean-up would spark State Capture-style backlash

Those arrests for corruption now fit into a rapidly expanding scandal that has rocked South Africa’s law enforcement arena.

According to Monday’s SAPS statement, other policing issues would be detailed to the public this week.

Policing and ‘national security concern’

The statement said: “General Masemola will also update the media on ongoing police operations that are under way to prevent and combat crime in the country.

“The General assures the nation that daily crime combating operations and normal day-to-day policing at stations and other SAPS service points continues.”

The statement was issued in response to what happened the day before, when KwaZulu-Natal Police Commissioner, Lieutenant General Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi, held a press briefing in which he alleged that senior figures, including Police Minister Senzo Mchunu, had undermined investigations into political killings and organised crime.

Mkhwanazi had claimed that the disbandment of the Political Killings Task Team was orchestrated to shield politically connected members of a criminal syndicate from prosecution, with Mchunu’s assistance.

Mkhwanazi said: “I can confirm before South Africans today that the investigation which these members were involved with in Gauteng has unmasked the syndicate, and this syndicate involves, amongst others, politicians who are currently serving in Parliament.”

He alleged that some syndicate members were in “the South African Police Service, the metro police and Correctional Services. They include prosecutors in Gauteng province, the judiciary… and all these are controlled by the drug cartel and businesspeople in Gauteng. This act, of course, undermines the criminal justice system in this country.”

STATEMENT BY PRESIDENT CYRIL RAMAPHOSA ON STATEMENTS BY SAPS KWAZULU-NATAL PROVINCIAL COMMISSIONER

President @CyrilRamaphosa has noted statements made earlier today in a media briefing by SAPS KwaZulu-Natal Provincial Commissioner Lieutenant General Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi.…

— The Presidency 🇿🇦 (@PresidencyZA) July 6, 2025

The critical accusations and allegations prompted President Cyril Ramaphosa to react.

He said: “This is a matter of grave national security concern that is receiving the highest priority attention…

“All parties to this matter are called upon to exercise discipline and restraint. 

“The trading of accusations and counter-accusations threatens to undermine public confidence and sow confusion.”

Minister vs Mkhwanazi

For his part, Mchunu issued a statement effectively rubbishing Mkhwanazi’s “wild allegations and claims”.

“The Minister of Police will never allow his integrity, that of the Ministry or the SAPS at large, to be undermined by insinuations made without evidence or due processes, from anyone, including Lieutenant General Mkhwanazi,” it said.

“We will be reviewing the Provincial Commissioner’s statements and consider appropriate action. 

“All these statements made by him in public require an urgent, thorough and transparent investigation, on a proper platform.”

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
⁰6 July 2025

MINISTER OF POLICE REJECTS BASELESS ALLEGATIONS BY KZN PROVINCIAL COMMISSIONER

The Minister of Police, Mr Senzo Mchunu, in his capacity as a member of the National Executive Committee of the African National Congress, has been on a campaign…

— Senzo Mchunu (@Senzo_Mchunu_) July 6, 2025

On Sunday, when addressing the media, Mkhwanazi shared a presentation outlining various allegations, some linked to the Political Killings Task Team.

The team was formed after the 2018 murder of ANC activist Musawenkosi “Qashana” Mchunu. 

According to Mkhwanazi, backed by a multi-agency presidential task force and praised for its prosecution-led, intelligence-driven strategy, the team had, by this year, investigated more than 600 politically related dockets, arrested 436 suspects and recovered 156 firearms, with at least 55 of them linked to political crimes. 

Convictions to date total more than 1,800 years in prison across more than 100 cases.

Mkhwanazi said that at the end of December last year, Mchunu issued a letter to Masemola, requesting that the team be disbanded.

The minister said the task team was no longer necessary because it did not add value to policing in the province, according to the SABC.

Despite this instruction, Mkhwanazi said at the time he would continue the fight to ensure the task team was allowed to proceed with high-profile investigations.

Mkhwanazi said members of the task team were working with detectives in Gauteng on possible cover-ups in murder cases in the province that involved senior police officers.

The disbandment of the task team was followed by a series of internal memos from SAPS Crime Detection head, Lieutenant General Shadrack Sibiya, withdrawing 121 case dockets from the team without the approval of the national or provincial commissioners. 

These dockets have reportedly sat untouched at the SAPS head office ever since.

WhatsApp messages

Sunday’s briefing included explosive revelations such as WhatsApp messages and screenshots allegedly sourced from the phone of accused businessman Vusimuzi “Cat” Matlala, showing communication between Matlala, Mchunu and a politically connected intermediary, Brown Mogotsi.

The chats suggest knowledge of the task team’s disbandment before it was made public, direct discussions of “solutions” to investigations and apparent financial support for political campaigns and 8 January ANC events.

Matlala was arrested by the task team in May and faces charges of attempted murder, conspiracy to commit murder and money laundering. 

Fewer than two weeks later, the Investigating Directorate Against Corruption moved to seize the task team’s exhibits, including Matlala’s cellphone, and arrested the team’s project coordinator. 

One of the syndicate suspects arrested by the team, Katiso Molefe, was granted bail.

The effect, Mkhwanazi said on Sunday, had been chilling, with the Gauteng investigations into organised crime “compromised” and confidence in the State’s willingness to prosecute politically connected suspects further eroded.

Political reaction

The EFF expressed concern, saying the briefing laid bare “the existence of a powerful, organised criminal syndicate operating at the highest levels of the South African state”.

It urged the chairperson of Parliament’s Portfolio Committee on Police, Ian Cameron, to convene an urgent portfolio committee sitting for a briefing from Mchunu.

On Sunday, Cameron said the DA had written to National Assembly Speaker Thoko Didiza for an urgent debate in Parliament on corruption within the SAPS.

At a security cluster media briefing on Monday morning, Cameron said Mkhwanazi’s “damning allegations” have placed the “focus on the integrity, or the lack thereof, in the entire criminal justice system”. 

“This is not just an indictment on the South African Police Service, or parts of it, it is an indictment on the criminal justice system. If what has been said is true, it explains why the system has not been able to effectively arrest the ever-increasing criminality in the country. The allegations are not only damning to a few individuals, it indicates a whole systematic weakening of the police to enable corruption and to undermine the rule of law,” he said. 

He added that Mkhwanazi’s revelations have given credence to the calls by the committee for an extensive skills and lifestyle audit. 

“I actually want to go as far as saying we need to go through an entire integrity commission to get to the bottom of the rot in the South African Police Service.”

He said that the revelations also “require urgent action” from President Cyril Ramaphosa.

‘Weighty revelations’

On social media on Sunday, Eskom board chairperson Mteto Nyati called Mkhwanazi “a great role model” and said his “decision to speak out” was “exemplary”.

Build One South Africa (Bosa) said it was “disturbed by the string of weighty revelations. Of particular concern is General Mkhwanazi’s claim that the task team appointed to investigate police killings was deliberately sabotaged from within the South African Police Service (SAPS). If true, this fundamentally undermines the integrity of our criminal justice institutions and threatens public safety.

“His allegations implicate senior police officials, prosecutors, judges, members of Parliament and members of the executive in acts that sabotage law enforcement and enable political killings.

“These are the symptoms of a state in capture crisis, where criminal syndicates and corrupt politicians allegedly operate with impunity.”

Bosa joined the growing calls for Mchunu, Mkhwanazi and others involved to urgently appear before Parliament.

Mkhwanazi’s briefing on Sunday ended with a call to SAPS members to “stand up and protect our people against this criminal syndicate”, even as he confirmed a formal criminal investigation was under way into the apparent capture of parts of South Africa’s criminal justice system.

“Despite all these challenges, we acknowledge and appreciate the resilience of the members of the Political Killings Task Team,” Mkhwanazi said. 

“They remain operational, albeit with serious attempts to disrupt their work.” DM

Addition reporting by Victoria O'Regan.