Illustrative image, from left: Julius Malema. (Photo: ParliamentRSA) | Evidence leader Norman Arendse (SC). (Photo: ParliamentRSA) | KZN Police Commissioner Lieutenant General Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi. (Photo: ParliamentRSA) | Committee chair Soviet Lekganyane. (Photo: Gallo Images / Brenton Geach) 
Before former KwaZulu-Natal premier Senzo Mchunu was appointed South Africa’s police minister in June 2024, Lieutenant General Nhanhla Mkhwanazi visited his home and they chatted over coffee.
/file/dailymaverick/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/ED_577603-1.jpg "Parliamentary ad hoc committee chair Soviet Lekganyane (left) at the inquiry into alleged corruption and political interference in the criminal justice system at Good Hope Chambers in Cape Town on 7 October 2025. (Photo: Gallo Images / Brenton Geach)")
The individual who facilitated the introduction and who was also present at that get-together was Cedrick Nkabinde, an acquaintance of Mkhwanazi’s who went on to become Mchunu’s chief of staff in the police ministry.
Mkhwanazi told Parliament on Tuesday, 7 October 2025, that Nkabinde and Mchunu may have known each other because of a police watchdog investigation involving accusations that Mchunu destroyed evidence in a now years-old investigation into a death.
This was part of Mkhwanazi’s testimony on the first day of Parliament’s ad hoc committee that is looking into accusations that Mkhwanazi initially made public in July.
The ad hoc committee is running a parallel hearing with the Madlanga Commission of Inquiry, which is also investigating Mkhwanazi’s accusations.
Rocky start and ‘rogue structure’
The ad hoc committee got off to a rocky start on Tuesday – it was delayed by several hours.
This was because MPs, chief among them the EFF’s Julius Malema, were unhappy that Mkhwanazi’s initial statement presented at the committee on Tuesday was the same as the one provided to the Madlanga Commission.
During the proceedings, Malema repeated a position that he had taken during a previous preliminary ad hoc meeting: that the parliamentary inquiry was not a “junior committee of the [Madlanga] Commission”.
“We repeatedly said we cannot use the statement of the commission,” Malema said, referring to previous meetings.
He said: “We are not a junior of the commission… we have nothing to do with what the commission is doing. We are a committee of Parliament.”
After a lengthy adjournment, the ad hoc committee resumed at 3pm, finally beginning its official public hearings.
Mkhwanazi, as the first witness, testified about several people, questioned by evidence leader advocate Norman Arendse SC.
Read more: Mkhwanazi alleges SA’s new capture — malicious corruption-busters and classified intelligence leaks
During the evening, Mkhwanazi doubled down on a key accusation, previously made at the Madlanga Commission, that the Investigating Directorate Against Corruption (Idac) had good investigators, but also a rogue structure within it.
He said this rogue structure was responsible for arresting Crime Intelligence head Dumisani Khumalo and several colleagues in June this year, after allegations of irregular appointments, which they denied.
“Khumalo’s arrest is a project,” Mkhwanazi insisted on Tuesday, saying it had been executed to disrupt investigations into criminal activity in Gauteng.
He said the Idac investigator who arrested Khumalo was a former Crime Intelligence officer and that it was also a coincidence that the husband of the Idac head (presumably Andre Johnson) also worked at Crime Intelligence.
Earlier in the proceedings, Mchunu and Nkabinde came under scrutiny.
For the first time, more details about Mkhwanazi’s past dealings with them surfaced. (Mchunu and Nkabinde were earlier named several times during the Madlanga Commission, with Nkabinde effectively being accused of leaking sensitive police information.)
Mchunu was placed on special leave earlier this year after allegations that Mkhwanazi had made against him.
This included that Mchunu ordered the disbanding of KwaZulu-Natal’s political killings task team, effectively to protect crime suspects.
During Tuesday’s ad hoc committee proceedings, Nkabinde was identified as the person who may have been involved in a letter, dated the end of 2024, that states Mchunu was disbanding the political killings task team.
‘Greener pastures’
Mkhwanazi told the ad hoc committee that he knew Nkabinde as a colleague, not as a close friend, because of Nkabinde’s stint at the Independent Police Investigative Directorate (Ipid), then headed by Robert McBride.
Nkabinde had initially been an officer with the South African Police Service, but left it for Ipid’s “greener pastures”.
Read more: The curious, agonising, perplexing case of the ANC vs Robert McBride
Mkhwanazi recalled about Nkabinde: “He would share a lot of things, especially about the work he was doing at Ipid.”
But Nkabinde had apparently been unhappy there.
Mkhwanazi testified on Tuesday that Nkabinde had told him he “couldn’t stand the wrong” that was happening at Ipid involving McBride and forensic investigator Paul O’Sullivan.
During this time, Nkabinde was facing departmental charges and planning to resign.
He was unemployed after leaving Ipid.
Meeting Mchunu
This is where events extend to Mchunu.
Mkhwanazi said that Nkabinde, while still unemployed, arranged a meeting between Mkhwanazi and Mchunu, when Mchunu was the Minister of Water and Sanitation before being appointed Police Minister around July 2024.
Read more: Questions Senzo Mchunu may have to answer at the Madlanga Commission
Mkhwanazi said that Nkabinde had once told him about how he came to know Mchunu. Mkhwanazi’s account of what Nkabinde allegedly told him is yet to be verified.
‘Crucial evidence’
According to Mkhwanazi, this account involved Nkabinde, while still with Ipid, meeting Mchunu at his home. (It was not clear exactly when this meeting happened.)
“He and Mr McBride had flown… from Gauteng, and they landed in Durban, and they travelled from Durban to Empangeni at [Mchunu’s] residence.
“And they went to meet [Mchunu] to go and tell him about a criminal investigation that the two of them were busy with at Ipid,” Mkhwanazi said on Tuesday.
“And it will appear that at the time, that [Mchunu] might’ve been implicated [in] that case. But [McBride and Nkabinde] somehow had some working arrangement with [Mchunu]. That’s what brought the three of them close to each other.”
Mkhwanazi said that while he did not believe much of what Nkabinde had told him, he asked him about the nature of the Ipid investigation linked to Mchunu.
“He said there was a death of someone in KZN and [Mchunu] at the time was accused [of having] interfered, with the destruction of … a crucial [piece of] evidence that was there,” Mkhwanazi said.
The investigation apparently happened when Mchunu was KwaZulu-Natal premier, between 2013 and 2016.
‘No clue’
Police officers and bodyguards had been working with Mchunu, and this was how the Ipid, which investigates accusations relating to police, became involved.
“As to the reason why they never arrested [Mchunu, who was the KwaZulu-Natal premier at the time, I don’t have the details of it,” Mkhwanazi said.
“It’s part of the things I’m still making inquiries on.”
Mkhwanazi said when Mchunu became police minister, he appointed Nkabinde as his chief of staff.
According to Mkhwanazi, Nkabinde had contacted him, asking what the job entailed.
“He had no clue” what a chief of staff was, Mkhwanazi alleged.
The ad hoc committee is expected to continue on Wednesday, with MPs having an opportunity to question Mkhwanazi on his explosive claims.
Meanwhile, the Madlanga Commission is set to resume next week. DM