Illustrative image | Reformed gangsters wearing orange jumpsuits who all served time in prison took to the streets of Manenberg. (Photo: Gallo Images / Brenton Geach) | Babita Deokaran, a Gauteng Health Department Official, was gunned down outside her home in Mondeor, Johannesburg.
(Photo: Facebook) | Lieutenant-General Fannie Masemola testifies at the Parliamentary Ad Hoc Committee of Inquiry. (Photo: Gallo Images / Brenton Geach)
South Africa’s police boss Fannie Masemola has a lot to answer for — literally.
On Friday, 10 October 2025, MPs had a chance to grill him over a range of issues as part of an ad hoc committee that started this week and that is investigating accusations that criminals have infiltrated policing and politics.
It was Masemola’s second day in the witness stand.
Several scandals and issues were raised during Friday’s proceedings, which were continuing at the time this was published.
/file/dailymaverick/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/ED_566760.jpg "National Police Commissioner of South Africa, Fannie Masemola (L) shakes hands with the newly appointed Minister of Police, Minister-Firoz Cachalia (R) following his affirmation ceremony at Union Buildings on August 01, 2025 in Pretoria (Photo by Gallo Images/Phill Magakoe)")
Hot seat
At one point during the question-and-answer session, Masemola said the country’s historically beleaguered Crime Intelligence unit, which has experienced problems including internal looting, was “salvageable”.
However, he conceded that recent ructions in the policing arena were affecting certain operations. Masemola also acknowledged that there was “no real” overall and solid plan to deal with whistleblower protection.
The Parliamentary ad hoc committee, as well as another hearing, the Madlanga Commission of Inquiry, is investigating accusations initially made about three months ago by KwaZulu-Natal’s Police Commissioner, Lieutenant-General Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi.
Read more: Police war of words continues as Sibiya accuses Masemola of ‘tainted’ process against him
He previously alleged that the police minister at the time, Senzo Mchunu, ordered the disbandment of KwaZulu-Natal’s Political Killings Task Team at the end of last year, because he was influenced to do so.
It was also alleged that the controversial plan to disband the task team was effectively made to protect criminal suspects. Mchunu, who denied wrongdoing, was placed on special leave after allegations against him first surfaced.
Phala Phala resurfaces
/file/dailymaverick/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/maxresdefault.jpg "Head of the Presidential Protection Services Wally Rhoode. (Photo: ScreengrabsSABC)")
During Friday’s ad hoc committee proceedings, MPs asked Masemola about these issues, as well as various other ones.
The MK party’s Crossby Vusi Shongwe asked Masemola about the 2020 housebreaking and theft at President Cyril Ramaphosa’s private Phala Phala farm in Limpopo.
Shongwe wanted to know if an Independent Police Investigative Directorate report on Phala Phala was top secret and if Ramaphosa’s personal protection head, Wally Rhoode, had been held to account over the saga.
Masemola said he was not sure about the report.
“General Rhoode was subject to [a] disciplinary process… he was found not guilty,” he said.
Masemola added that detectives had investigated the Phala Phala saga, not Rhoode.
The reference to Ramaphosa was not the first time this week that the MK party brought up his name during the ad hoc committee proceedings.
On Wednesday, MP David Skosana asked Mkhwanazi, on the witness stand at the time, if he thought Ramaphosa had failed to act on issues that were the focus of the committee — this included about the Political Killings Task Team disbandment directive.
Mkhwanazi replied that he could not answer about police management, and he was not able to provide an opinion on what Ramaphosa should or should not have done.
Meanwhile, during Friday’s proceedings, ActionSA’s Dereleen James covered several topics when it was her turn to question Masemola.
‘I didn’t fail Deokaran’
/file/dailymaverick/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/MC-takudzwa-tembisa_2.jpg "On Monday 23 August, Babita Deokaran, a Gauteng Health Department Official, was gunned down outside her home in Mondeor, Johannesburg just after 8:00 in the morning.(Photo: Facebook)")
She spent some time talking about Babita Deokaran, a whistleblower who reported a series of fraudulent transactions at Gauteng’s Tembisa Hospital, who was fatally shot outside her home in August 2021.
James asked Masemola if he believed he had failed Deokaran.
Masemola responded: “No. I don’t believe I failed her.”
He said he only became aware that she was a whistleblower after she had been murdered.
Masemola added that while there were some measures in place to protect individuals flagged as exposing criminality, “by and large there’s no real mechanism for the protection of whistleblowers”.
James also focused on gang violence in Cape Town.
She wanted to know why shootings continued and whether a police unit, like the Political Killings Task Team, would be created to address this.
Masemola explained to her that extra police officers had been deployed in the Western Cape. He said officers had also been moved from police stations in affluent areas to suburbs experiencing more violence, and that were historically poorer.
James put it to Masemola that even though he was of the view that he was “beyond reproach”, he was not. She referenced Mchunu’s directive to have KwaZulu-Natal’s Political Killings Task Team disbanded, and said Masemola should have outright rejected this if it was an unlawful order.
Masemola had instead suggested the task team be wound down or phased out — he repeatedly referenced this during Friday’s proceedings.
‘ANC aligned’
/file/dailymaverick/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/ISS-today-pic-2.jpg "Minister of Police Senzo Mchunu at a media briefing at the National Joint Operational and Intelligence Structure Coordination Centre on 13 June 2025 in Pretoria, (Photo: Frennie Shivambu / Gallo Images via Getty Images)")
James pointed out that Mchunu was a “minister of the ANC” and Masemola disagreed, saying: “No. He’s the Minister of the Police in the Republic of South Africa.”
His response appeared to anger James, who hit back saying: “We’re not here to play games.”
She added: “These people [allegedly involved in criminality] are ANC aligned… You did not protect South Africans. You exposed us to drug cartels.”
The DA’s Lisa Schickerling also asked Masemola several questions about his actions relating to the Political Killings Task Team.
She said he “never once said” that he was opposed to its closure, and that this new stance of his only started surfacing after Mkhwanazi’s July press conference.
Focusing on another issue, Schickerling pointed out to Masemola that the official release of the country’s crime statistics had been delayed by more than two months. She asked if the “turmoil” being experienced in the police service was affecting its overall functioning.
Masemola responded: “One cannot deny that, yes indeed.”
He added the latest crime statistics would be released “soon.”
Related raids
Friday’s proceedings followed a day during which there were several developments related to issues that are the focus of the ad hoc committee.
While Masemola was testifying on Thursday, police operations were carried out in Gauteng. Suspended Deputy National Commissioner of Crime Detection Shadrack Sibiya’s home was raided, and electronic items were seized.
Read more: SA’s policing scandal explodes – ‘Under siege’ Sibiya and Mchunu’s chief staffer raided
Mchunu’s chief of staff Cedrick Nkabinde also told journalists on Thursday that officers with balaclavas and high-calibre rifles had searched his flat the previous evening.
Sibiya is expected to start testifying at the Parliamentary ad hoc hearing on Monday.
The Madlanga Commission, following a break, is also set to resume on the same day. DM