KwaZulu-Natal’s National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) director, Elaine Harrison, was bypassed and only informed four months later about the dissolution of the police’s Political Killings Task Team (PKTT).

She first heard about this through social media but dismissed it as just fake news.

On Friday, Harrison revealed to the Madlanga Commission of Inquiry sitting in Pretoria that what she thought was fake news became a reality when it was confirmed to her by one of her juniors.

She was disappointed because she regarded the task team as important in dealing with politically motivated organised crimes.

During their appearance before the Justice Mbuyiseli Madlanga-led commission investigating the political interference in the task team’s investigations, both KwaZulu-Natal Police Commissioner Lieutenant-General Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi and National Police Commissioner Lieutenant-General Fannie Masemola also testified that they were bypassed in implementing Police Minister Senzo Mchunu’s instruction to dissolve the team with immediate effect.

President Cyril Ramaphosa placed Mchunu on special leave following Mkhwanazi’s allegations against him. 

The commission learned that Lieutenant-General Shadrack Sibiya, suspended deputy police commissioner responsible for crime detection, went behind his boss, Masemola, to carry out Mchunu’s instruction and also removed the team’s 121 dockets from KwaZulu-Natal. 

To ensure that case dockets, which the team submitted to the NPA, were prosecuted successfully, the NPA had assembled its own Organised Crime Component (OCC). 

She said both the task team and OCC worked hand-in-glove, which resulted in some being brought to court and others successfully prosecuted. 

Harrison was on leave between December last year and January when she first heard about the dissolution. 

The matter trended on social media four months before Mkhwanazi informed her that the task team’s dockets were removed from the province and kept idle at the police headquarters in Pretoria.    

“At the time (she was on leave), I thought it was fake news,” Harrison said. 

On her return from leave in January, Advocate Lawrence Gcaba, NPA provincial deputy director responsible for overseeing the prosecution of all the dockets of the task team, informed her that the social media reports “may be well true”.

Gcaba had been informed about the task team’s status by the national Crime Intelligence head, Dumisani Khumalo. 

Khumalo had informed Gcaba that the OCC had to continue with matters that had already been enrolled or were awaiting court judgment, and it would not receive new dockets.

“There was no formal communication notifying us of the disestablishment of the task team,” said Harrison. 

She considered the task team essential to deal with political killings, which were threatening to destabilise KwaZulu-Natal and appeared to be spreading to other provinces. 

Mkhwanazi only informed Harrison on May 22 this year, through a letter, that the 121 dockets regarding the relocation of the prosecution-guided investigation dockets to Pretoria “due to telephonic instruction received by the Political Killing Task Team leader”.

“It is an unfortunate situation that the office wrote a letter on 2025/05/20 in a docket accountability session regarding the fact that all prosecution guidance dockets since 25/03/26 have not been addressed. 

“This office assured the Director of Public Prosecution that the whereabouts of these dockets is being investigated and the findings will be brought to your attention,” read Mkhwanazi’s letter to Harrison.   

Mkhwanazi’s letter did not say anything about the task team’s disestablishment, which left Harrison in the dark and frustrated. 

“An enormous amount of work had taken place to ensure the necessary coordination by providing a dedicated prosecutorial team to address all the challenges that had historically been raised in response to the work of the task team.

“News of the disestablishment emerged at a time when work that had been put in and it was clearly bearing fruit, and coordination was producing the desired results,” she said.

Harrison wrote back to Mkhwanazi seeking clarification about the task team. 

“There has been no formal communication to the office of the National Director of Public Prosecution, as well as my office, on this issue.

“It is of concern that this office remains unsure of what the position is regarding the existence of this team,” read Harrison’s letter to Mkhwanazi.

She said it was a frustration to her that while the dissolution was trending on social media, nothing formal was communicated to her. 

“Advocate Gcaba had informed me that what they had been told by General Khumalo was that they would only be dealing with the decision dockets that they had and with the court-going matters and that they would not be taking any new matters.” 

She feared that, ahead of next year’s local government elections, politically related violence, including murders, attempted murders, assaults, crimen injuria, and malicious property damage, would resume involving members of the same political party against each other or between different political parties.

“Clearly, in KwaZulu-Natal, we see this every time that there are elections. 

“It is a forewarning that, in going towards the next elections in 2026, we can expect that there will be some spiral of political activities and violence within the province. 

“I was worried at that stage that no one was coming out to tell me what the correct picture regarding this letter that is now circulating in the media,” she said. 

 bongani.hans@inl.co.za  

Source link