Illustrative Image: Fadiel Adams (NCC Leader). (Photo: Gallo Images / Luba Lesolle) | Lieutenant-General Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi, KZN police commissioner. (Photo: Gallo Images / Darren Stewart) | Eugene Mthethwa. (Photo: Gallo Images / Papi Morake) 
Clear divisions have emerged in Parliament relating to how different political party representatives view KwaZulu-Natal Police Commissioner Lieutenant-General Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi and his recent police corruption accusations.
EFF and MK party politicians made comments on Wednesday, 16 July 2025, including: “We are General Mkhwanazi and General Mkhwanazi is us.”
The National Coloured Congress, however, made it clear that it did not buy into Mkhwanazi’s claims, with its leader saying he was basically being “eulogised” but had deflected from the possible imminent arrest of national Police Commissioner Fannie Masemola.
This all emerged on Wednesday when Parliament’s police committee and its justice and constitutional development committee held a joint meeting to deal with issues relating to Mkhwanazi’s allegations.
Ad hoc committee
The Speaker of Parliament had asked the two committees to figure out, in relation to the allegations, how to exercise oversight of the police service.
One of the options for the committees was as an ad hoc committee.
A presentation shown during Wednesday’s joint meeting explained: “The scope of an ad hoc committee is task specific and time bound, contrary to the general oversight function, which is ongoing.”
It appeared that while not all MPs were in agreement, this is the option the committees will go for.
Mkhwanazi had held a press briefing on 6 July and alleged that a drug cartel based in Gauteng was controlling a high-level criminal syndicate that extended into the South African Police Service (SAPS), the Police Ministry, Parliament, official prison structures, the judiciary and other law-enforcing authorities.
He also alleged that Police Minister Senzo Mchunu, along with several other figures including Deputy National Commissioner of Crime Detection Lieutenant-General Shadrack Sibiya, had undermined investigations into political killings and organised crime.
Mchunu and Sibiya denied it.
Read more: Mkhwanazi fallout intensifies as Sibiya told to ‘step aside’ after political killing accusations
On Tuesday, Masemola announced that Sibiya had been placed on leave.
A few days earlier President Cyril Ramaphosa announced that a commission of inquiry was being launched into Mkhwanazi’s accusations.
He also informed the country that Mchunu had been placed on special leave — Minister of Mineral and Petroleum Resources Gwede Mantashe is now acting police minister until August when Firoz Cachalia is set to take over.
On Wednesday in Parliament, police committee chairperson Ian Cameron said Sibiya being placed on leave may be irregular as the SAPS could have suspended him or temporarily transferred him.
During the meeting various MPs expressed frustration at yet another commission of inquiry being launched, the length of time these processes took, and the related costs.
‘This country will see fire’
The EFF’s Eugene Mthethwa said the Commission of Inquiry would provide more insight on Mkhwanazi’s allegations, especially the counter set of allegations.
But he said it was “insensitive” given how costly it would be and the time it would take.
Mthethwa focused on public sentiment towards Mkhwanazi, saying: “We are General Mkhwanazi and General Mkhwanazi is us.”
This stance, he said, was emphasised through a “Hands off Mkhwanazi” campaign that was taking place in different provinces.
Mthethwa agreed with the sentiment expressed by an MK party MP about “a ticking time bomb”.
He said: “The mere fact that people are on the streets before anything happens, it is a ticking time bomb.
“Should… anything happen to Mkhwanazi, I want to second the very notion and the sentiment that this country will see fire.”
Mthethwa added that democratic South Africa’s first president Nelson Mandela was no longer around to quell a “fire”, like the one he probably prevented after anti-apartheid leader Chris Hani’s assassination in 1993.
Mthethwa was of the view that those supporting Mkhwanazi identified with what he had done.
“I believe that the media briefing by Lieutenant-General Mkhwanazi is a deep outcry and desperate measure as a last report to get a hearing,” Mthethwa said.
He said Mkhwanazi had probably first tried, via proper protocols, to get the police to react to his allegations before he held the press conference.
‘Mkhwanazi made a threat’
National Coloured Congress leader Fadiel Adams, though, had a different take on Mkhwanazi and his allegations.
“I find it very, very suspicious that a full minister [Mchunu] is suspended and the deputy national commissioner [Sibiya] is suspended on the basis of an allegation,” Adams said.
He added that while those two senior police officers had been placed on leave, seven other senior officers had recently been arrested but remained at work.
Adams was referencing national Crime Intelligence head Dumisani Khumalo and six of his colleagues being arrested last month after allegations of irregular appointments.
They denied the accusations.
Masemola had transferred them from the Crime Intelligence unit following their arrests.
Adams on Wednesday asked why Parliament was effectively involved in “targeting” certain people, and emphasised that he was of the view Mkhwanazi was being “eulogised”.
It previously emerged that Adams was a complainant in the case that saw Khumalo and his six colleagues arrested last month.
On Wednesday he said: “I as the complainant… am connecting the dots.”
He referred to Mkhwanazi’s 6 July media briefing as a “staged press conference”.
During that briefing Mkhwanazi had worn Special Task Force camouflage — he previously headed the unit — and was surrounded by armed police officers.
Adams on Wednesday said it had looked like an “armed militia” behind Mkhwanazi and that the press briefing had been “a threat to this country”.
It was Adams’ suspicion that Masemola faced arrest and that Mkhwanazi’s press conference was a pre-emptive move to deflect or prevent that.
“The country appears to have fallen for it,” Adams said.
MP and Mchunu suspicions
What Adams did not mention in Parliament on Wednesday is that Mkhwanazi, during his press conference earlier this month, appeared to reference Adams without naming him.
Mkhwanazi had alleged that in the run-up to Khumalo’s arrest, “members of Crime Intelligence released classified documents and handed them over to a member of Parliament”.
Mkhwanazi said the “classified documents” related to issues including vetting as well as covert properties.
He said the MP subsequently registered a criminal case in Gauteng — this is what Adams did — and that Mchunu, who was police minister at the time, was allegedly approached and asked, “to take these dockets and assign them to someone else”.
Read more: Mkhwanazi’s warning — drug cartel, criminal syndicate infest SA law enforcement
Mkhwanazi alleged that Mchunu’s chief of staff wrote to the Investigating Directorate Against Corruption (Idac) asking that the allegations of Crime Intelligence vetting process manipulation be investigated.
While that specific aspect relating to Mchunu is unconfirmed, Idac did indeed arrest Khumalo and his six colleagues.
Mkhwanazi had further inferred that the Crime Intelligence arrests may have been orchestrated to intentionally implode the unit
Whistleblower worries
During his press conference earlier this month, Mkhwanazi also spoke about individuals styling themselves as whistleblowers when their actual intention was to make certain individuals look bad.
On Wednesday in Parliament, issues including the safety of whistleblowers were focused on.
The MK party’s Mzwanele Manyi said this issue needed special attention and it was “something that South Africa is terrible at”.
Read more: ‘No smear campaigning’ — Masemola warns Crime Intelligence management while filling unit vacancies
He cautioned that given the serious allegations involved in the Mkhwanazi matter, “people are going to die in this process”.
Manyi also said: “We don’t want another Babita situation.”
This was reference to whistleblower Babita Deokaran, who was murdered in August 2021 after she had flagged a businessman who has since become a crime accused, Vusi “Cat” Matlala, over contracts linked to Tembisa Hospital in Gauteng.
Mkhwanazi, during his press conference earlier this month, alleged that Matlala, who faces attempted murder charges in Gauteng, was in cahoots with Mchunu.
Mchunu denied it. DM