Dr Mary de Haas testifies at the parliamentary ad hoc committee inquiry, Good Hope Chambers, 18 November 2025, Cape Town. (Photo: Gallo Images / Brenton Geach) 
KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) violence monitor Mary de Haas finds it outrageous that ordinary people struggle for justice while politicians are given special treatment.
She expressed this on Tuesday, 18 November 2025, during Parliament’s ad hoc committee that is investigating accusations that a drug trafficking cartel has infiltrated South Africa’s law enforcement and politics.
De Haas has monitored and researched political violence in KwaZulu-Natal since the 1980s and has built a vast network of contacts through this, including police officers.
Her research methods combine academia, gleaning information via the media and personal communications.
On Tuesday some MPs seemed unimpressed with the details she was providing them with, saying it came across as hearsay, which she said was not the way she viewed the information.
De Haas was previously mentioned - not always favourably – when others testified before Parliament’s ad hoc committee.
This was largely because of her dealings with police and her stance on KwaZulu-Natal’s Political Killings Task Team (PKTT), which became a key point of controversy in the overall law enforcement scandal that is still developing.
/file/dailymaverick/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/ED_586295.jpg "Dr Mary de Haas testifies at the parliamentary ad hoc committee inquiry, 18 November 2025. (Photo: Gallo Images / Brenton Geach)")
‘Special’ treatment for politicians
“I see people dying and the police doing nothing and yet we’re spending money on this team,” De Haas testified on Tuesday.
“I think it’s outrageous, quite frankly, when ordinary people can’t get justice … I’m speaking here for poor people. You don’t even hear about them being killed.
“They’re killed all the time in rural areas. They’re trying to defend their land, for example. No one’s paying attention or doing anything special for them. Why are we doing something special for politicians?”
De Haas’ question referred to the PKTT.
Dr Mary de Haas arrives to testify at the Ad Hoc Committee to Investigate Allegations made by SAPS KwaZulu-Natal Provincial Head Lieutenant General Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi @ParliamentofRSA #AdHocCommittee pic.twitter.com/JdSYuXwiy0
— Justice-and-security-Cluster (@JustSecuCluster) November 18, 2025
She was of the view that its creation was unnecessary.
During her testimony, De Haas told MPs she was not sure how the PKTT, which she believed former police minister Bheki Cele “drove”, defined the cases it dealt with.
Senzo Mchunu issued a highly controversial directive, on 31 December 2024 while he was police minister, to disband it.
His directive was never followed through with – it previously emerged that senior police bosses did not support Mchunu’s plan.
KwaZulu-Natal Police Commissioner Lieutenant General Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi sparked the law enforcement scandal, into which the PKTT now fits, a few months ago in July when alleging a drug cartel had infiltrated policing and politics.
Mkhwanazi had also alleged that Mchunu was influenced to order the PKTT’s disbandment because certain crime suspects were under the impression this would implode investigations against them.
These accusations saw Mchunu, who denied wrongdoing, being placed on special leave.
Mchunu previously told Parliament’s ad hoc committee that he called for the PKTT disbandment because of a tight police budget and to avoid doubling up on crimefighting efforts.
/file/dailymaverick/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/ED_582658-1.jpg "Police Minister Senzo Mchunu at the parliamentary ad hoc committee inquiry, 17 October 2025, Cape Town, South Africa. (Photo: Gallo Images / Brenton Geach)")
‘Not credible’
He had acknowledged receiving communications from individuals including De Haas and Patricia Mashale, whom he said passed along “rumour” as well as legitimate policing documents.
De Haas on Tuesday said she was in contact with Mashale and independently followed up on information that Mashale passed along to Mchunu.
Mkhwanazi, meanwhile, based on his previous testimony before the ad hoc committee, did not view De Haas highly.
That feeling goes both ways.
On Tuesday when David Skosana of the MK party asked De Haas if she believed Mkhwanazi was credible, she replied, “I don’t believe he is.”
Asked the same about former Crime Intelligence head Dumisani Khumalo (who appeared to be aligned with Mkhwanazi), De Haas responded, “Nope, definitely not.”
She also said that National Police Commissioner Fannie Masmemola had perjured himself in Parliament in 2022 when he “lied” about Mashale.
Committee chair Soviet Lekganyane asked De Haas if she would consider withdrawing that statement, which she did, after first trying to say Masemola “allegedly perjured” himself.
Back to the PKTT.
/file/dailymaverick/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/ED_577584.jpg "Lt Gen Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi testifies at the parliamentary ad hoc committee’s inquiry, 7 October 2025. (Photo: Gallo Images / Brenton Geach)")
‘Abuse’ and ‘torture’
In a complaint to Parliament’s police committee earlier this year, De Haas had raised issues relating to it, including “excessive expenditure”, and called for an audit of its funds.
(This – “excessive expenditure” – fits into Mchunu’s apparent concerns about the PKTT and the police budget, which he mentioned as one of the reasons he called for the team’s disbandment.)
De Haas on Tuesday listed some allegations that provided insight into her stance on the PKTT.
“The abuses that people were independently reporting to me … Emotional and physical abuses, the use of tubing,” she said.
Read more: ‘Tubing’ — the apartheid-era torture method still prevalent within the police
Tubing is an apartheid-era suffocation measure.
De Haas continued: “It’s almost a norm it seems … They just come in and search without a warrant … that is a common allegation.”
She added that the “fabrication of evidence” was a “serious problem”.
De Haas had heard that she was viewed as having prompted Mchunu to order the PKTT’s disbandment, which on Tuesday she dismissed as “nonsense”.
‘Enemies’ and ‘hearsay’
She referenced unrest in July 2021, which saw more than 300 people killed in KwaZulu-Natal when riots broke out over the temporary detention of former president Jacob Zuma.
De Haas said she had been told that intelligence, instead of being bolstered, had deteriorated in KwaZulu-Natal since then.
She testified that the province was violent and, aside from that, that there were some individuals she had angered.
“I have just had to debug my phone. Without a court order, my calls were all getting diverted,” said De Haas.
“I have to watch every move I make because I’ve made a lot of enemies.”
De Haas added: “I hardly move myself now because I could get killed.”
During her testimony on Tuesday, she often referenced people and events dating back years and even decades.
De Haas also mentioned various sources who had provided her with information, but she did not provide all their names, saying reasons for this include to ensure their safety.
[WATCH] ANC MP, Cde @Xola_Nqola , probes Dr Mary de Haas on her affidavit, saying “It looks like it largely relies on hearsay”. He further asks about the information she says she received about the PKTT. #AdHocCommittee pic.twitter.com/oG3lN9NqO3
— ANC Parliament (@ANCParliament) November 18, 2025
The ANC’s Xola Nqola put it to her that the statement she submitted to the ad hoc committee looked like it contained lots of hearsay because it referenced what other people had said or told her.
De Haas replied, “For me, it’s not hearsay.”
The DA’s Ian Cameron put it to her that he was concerned “about your lack of evidence”.
He asked De Haas if she enjoyed talking to the media, giving interviews and addresses about the issues being discussed.
She reacted by saying, “I don’t enjoy any of this. I don’t get paid for it. I risk my life. I give my time.”
De Haas said she continued with her work because no one else was doing it.
Read more: Former ‘Cato Manor Unit’ officers challenge years of unjust prosecutions in court
Cameron suggested that in speaking publicly, but not officially, she skirted potential legal repercussions.
He brought up the so-called Cato Manor death squad saga, which previously saw a group of police officers, headed by Johan Booysen, being falsely accused of unlawful murders in KwaZulu-Natal
In 2018, the Sunday Times apologised for how it dealt with the matter back in 2011, and De Haas reportedly reacted to the apology saying it could sweep facts and wider context under a carpet.
Cameron on Tuesday told De Haas that in the context of what they were talking about, including Booysen, “I would sue you for defamation … you just haphazardly say things about people.”
He said if he and his colleagues acted the same way, they would receive ethics complaints.
‘Human rights defender’
The DA’s Dianne Kohler Barnard put it to De Haas that she said the PKTT “kills rather than arrests” and asked if she had figures in relation to this.
De Haas did not provide figures, but gave a long answer, which included her saying that she was a medical rights group member and mortuaries in KwaZulu-Natal were dysfunctional.
During the question-and-answer session with MPs, De Haas was also asked what legal authority she had to intimately involve herself with policing matters.
She said she was a human rights defender, which was an internationally recognised position.
Earlier, De Haas’ testimony seemed to frustrate some MPs, with ActionSA’s Dereleen James at one point saying: “This is not a history class … We are getting derailed.” DM