‘There will be fightback’ — Mchunu’s chief staffer alleges Mkhwanazi threatened him over PKTT scandal

After the police minister, Senzo Mchunu, issued a controversial directive to disband a key KwaZulu-Natal investigative team last year, an ultimatum was allegedly issued to his chief of staff, Cedrick Nkabinde: withdraw the directive or face a fightback, Nkabinde testified before Parliament’s ad hoc committee on Wednesday, 19 October.

The committee is investigating accusations that a drug trafficking cartel has infiltrated South Africa’s law enforcement, politics and private security sectors.

Mchunu was placed on special leave this year because of the allegations against him in this matter.

‘Plot to oust Phahlane’

On Wednesday, Nkabinde testified about a broad range of issues, including an alleged conspiracy dating back to around 2017, when he was with the Independent Police Investigative Directorate (Ipid) and before he became Mchunu’s chief of staff.

Nkabinde claimed a team was assembled to ensure that the acting national police commissioner at the time, Khomotso Phahlane, would not be appointed in a permanent capacity. (Phahlane was later accused of corruption and countered that he was collateral in a battle over policing.)

According to Nkabinde, the aim of the team, which included forensic investigator Paul O’Sullivan, was to ensure that former Ipid head Robert McBride became national police commissioner.

Nkabinde claimed AfriForum financially “backed” this plan. His assertions have not been tested.

Nkabinde and Mchunu are implicated in the developing law enforcement scandal that erupted a few months ago when the KwaZulu-Natal police commissioner, Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi, made a series of serious accusations.

Testimony 2.0

Nkabinde started testifying before the ad hoc committee on Thursday, 13 November.

His testimony was cut short that day because he could not clarify certain locations and dates, and eventually conceded: “I was thumbsucking.”

This infuriated MPs, who said he should be investigated for perjury.

Committee chair Soviet Lekganyane last week told Nkabinde he needed to go back and reflect before resuming his testimony.

On Wednesday, Lekganyane told him he could see the “helmet of integrity on your head” and the “amulet of ethics”.

Read more: Mchunu chief of staff’s ‘thumbsucking’ testimony admission sparks perjury accusations

Various matters were focused on during Wednesday’s proceedings.

This included Nkabinde’s knowledge of meetings involving Mchunu and Brown Mogotsi, an ANC-aligned North West businessman.

Mogotsi has been accused of being a middleman connected to, among others, Mchunu and organised crime accused Vusimuzi “Cat” Matlala.

During previous ad hoc committee proceedings, it was alleged that Matlala was approached to finance a project involving Mchunu’s ambition of becoming ANC president or deputy president.

Mchunu denied any wrongdoing and described Mogotsi as a political comrade.

Mchunu, Mogotsi and meetings

On Wednesday, Nkabinde picked up where he left off in his testimony last week.

He shared details about two matters that involved Mchunu and Mogotsi.

These were:

• A meeting related to the “ongoing standoff” with illegal miners at a gold mine in Stilfontein, North West, on 28 October 2024. Mchunu asked Nkabinde to invite Mogotsi to this meeting because Mogotsi would bring “local leaders” who could brief Mchunu on the situation before a planned ministerial visit. It was during this period, Nkabinde claimed, that the pair first interacted. Crucially, Nkabinde claimed Mchunu gave him Mogotsi’s cellphone number. The meeting between Mogotsi and Mchunu happened (along with other leaders from the North West), but Nkabinde did not participate in it.
• A follow-up meeting was meant to be held on 3 February 2025 at Mchunu’s official residence. But Mogotsi told Nkabinde that the individuals accompanying him “were urgently called to Luthuli House”, the ANC’s headquarters, so they could not attend.

Mkhwanazi has told Parliament’s police committee that in October 2024, he received a phone call and a message “from a gentleman who said to me he is a close associate of the minister of police … he referred to himself as Mr Brown Mogotsi”.

Read more: Mkhwanazi twisted what I said about comrade Brown Mogotsi, Mchunu tells Parliament

Mkhwanazi said he checked with Nkabinde who Mogotsi was, and Nkabinde told him that Mogotsi was a person close to Mchunu.

At the ad hoc committee on Wednesday, Nkabinde confirmed that Mkhwanazi contacted him about Mogotsi.

However, he testified, “I never said he’s a close associate of the minister.”

Meanwhile, Mogotsi on Tuesday claimed to be a Crime Intelligence (CI) agent.

He alleged this at the Madlanga Commission of Inquiry that is running parallel to the ad hoc committee’s proceedings and investigating the same accusations.

During the ad hoc committee’s proceedings on Wednesday, when Nkabinde was asked if he knew that Mogotsi was a CI agent, he replied, “No, not at all.

Last week, Nkabinde testified that he and Mkhwanazi were close friends, which contradicted what Mkhwanazi previously said — that they were work colleagues.

‘There will be fightback’

Another key issue focused on during Wednesday’s proceedings was the Political Killings Task Team (PKTT) in KwaZulu-Natal.

Mchunu issued a controversial directive on 31 December 2024, while he was police minister, to disband the team.

Mkhwanazi has alleged that Mchunu was influenced to do this because certain crime suspects believed this would impede investigations against them.

Mchunu denied that, saying factors that contributed to his disbandment order included the tight police budget and transferring the functions of the PKTT into a Murder and Robbery Unit.

On Wednesday, during the ad hoc proceedings, it emerged that Nkabinde was suspected of being part of a conspiracy to disband the PKTT.

His Gauteng residence was raided last month, and a police affidavit said he, Mchunu and Matlala were among a group suspected of effectively pushing for the PKTT’s “unlawful termination”.

On Wednesday, Nkabinde said that after Mchunu’s directive to disband the PKTT became public, Mkhwanazi contacted him (Nkabinde).

Read more: The company they keep — Cele and Mchunu on Matlala, Mogotsi and a murdered convict

According to Nkabinde, “He asked why I had allowed the minister to issue the directive and further asked me to speak to the minister and to request that he withdraw the directive.

“He said that I should speak to the minister, not as chief of staff, but as a person who has known the minister before … I became chief of staff.

“He indicated that if the minister does not withdraw the directive, there will be fightback”.

‘Consider recording him’

Nkabinde relayed what Mkhwanazi had told him to Mchunu.

Mchunu, according to Nkabinde, told him they would discuss the matter when meeting in Cape Town, and if Mkhwanazi was “giving such a serious threat, probably you should consider recording him”.

Nkabinde said he later recorded a conversation with Mkhwanazi, without telling Mkhwanazi that he was doing so.

The DA’s Ian Cameron asked Nkabinde who had authorised him to record Mkhwanazi.

“No one authorised me,” replied Nkabinde. “I took that decision.”

Mchunu previously asked the ad hoc committee to play the audio recording of the conversation in which Mkhwanazi allegedly came across as threatening.

Part of a recording was played, but it did not contain a threat.

Crime Intelligence complaints

Issues relating to the police’s Crime Intelligence unit, which has long been the centre of controversy, were also focused on during Wednesday’s proceedings.

Emails to Nkabinde, relating to criminal complaints that National Coloured Congress (NCC) leader Fadiel Adams lodged with the police, fit in here.

Adams lodged the complaints in the Western Cape and Gauteng against CI officers, but he was apparently worried the dockets had been “intercepted”.

The complaints seem to have culminated in the June arrests of Dumisani Khumalo, who was the country’s CI boss at the time, and six colleagues.

Mkhwanazi has suggested that Khumalo and his colleagues may have been targeted as part of a plot to derail CI investigations.

Read more: Andrea Johnson rejects ‘Witch-Hunt’ claims as policing scandal exposes deep rifts

Mkhwanazi alleged that CI officers may have colluded with individuals in the Investigating Directorate Against Corruption (Idac) to see that Khumalo was arrested.

Wednesday’s ad hoc committee proceedings in Parliament heard that emails from the NCC about CI were sent to Mchunu and Nkabinde in November last year.

The emails to Nkabinde went along the lines of “your national commissioner” — presumably police chief Fannie Masemola — claimed that “all is above board in the case of the allegations made against Major General Khumalo”, which the NCC had been told was “false.”

Nkabinde contacted Masemola about this, asking for a response by 4 November last year.

The police’s Inspectorate was looking into the matter (it apparently found that information in the dockets was flimsy), and Nkabinde had known this.

‘Entirely inappropriate’

However, he still referred the matter — that suggested Adams had lost confidence in Masemola — to Idac.

Questions arose during Wednesday’s proceedings about why Nkabinde had directed the matter to Idac while the police Inspectorate was dealing with it.

Nkabinde said that the Inspectorate dealt with “service delivery complaints” whereas Idac investigated criminality.

He conceded that the Police Ministry received hundreds of emails daily, and this was the first matter he had referred to Idac.

Nkabinde said he did this on Mchunu’s instruction.

Read more: Mkhwanazi alleges SA’s new capture — malicious corruption-busters and classified intelligence leaks

Evidence leader advocate Norman Arendse SC put it to Nkabinde that his referral of the matter to Idac was “entirely inappropriate — that’s putting it mildly”.

Nkabinde replied, “I’ve done nothing wrong in referring that matter to Idac.”

Arendse told Nkabinde he found it strange that Mchunu would have directed such a “flimsy” complaint to Idac and pointed out that Nkabinde had not said in his Idac referral that Mchunu had directed the matter there.

Nkabinde hit back: “Do you think I was supposed to say that? For what? For what?”

The ad hoc committee will resume on Thursday to hear evidence from Molefe Fani, the Divisional Commissioner: Supply Chain Manager. DM