Parliament’s Ad Hoc Committee investigating allegations made by SAPS KwaZulu-Natal provincial commissioner, Lieutenant General Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi, came to a halt during the testimony of suspended Minister Senzo Mchunu’s chief of staff, Cedrick Nkabinde.

The parliamentary inquiry is probing the explosive allegations made by Mkhwanazi at a press conference on July 6, months after Mchunu issued controversial directives, including the disbanding of the Political Killings Task Team (PKTT) to SAPS national commissioner Fannie Masemola on December 31, 2024.

Thursday afternoon’s proceedings came to a halt when Nkabinde’s testimony was challenged by members of Parliament (MPs), pointing out contradictions between the evidence he submitted in his affidavit to the committee and the verbal testimony he was delivering.

Nkabinde had spent the morning testifying about how former police minister Bheki Cele had used his IPID whistleblower report to block the renewal of ex-IPID head Robert McBride’s contract, as well as the relationship between Mchunu and information peddler Brown Mogotsi.

In response to EFF’s Julius Malema’s questioning Nkabinde over the discrepancy of dates in his affidavit, and a question on whether he had his device when compiling the affidavit, Nkabinde said “no, dates I was thumb-sucking”.

Malema thereafter questioned why the committee must proceed based on a “thumb sucked” affidavit.

Speaking after the proceedings were suspended, committee member Mdumiseni Ntuli said: “I think my overall impression is that he underestimated what would be expected of him when he appears before the ad hoc committee, and he took it for granted that even in instances where he might not have the required information and dates in particular, he can easily escape that by arguing that he does not have his own gadgets.

“I think what he did not recognise is the fact that, that on its own, communicates a negative message about him, because here is somebody who is a chief of staff, and therefore he is expected to have a much more advanced level of preparedness for whatever work that he’s expected to carry out.

“For him to simply come and say, ‘I don’t know, I may have misled you because I don’t have my gadget’. I think it’s too simple an excuse,” Ntuli said.

Ntuli said that his state of readiness is a reflection on Nkabinde as “a civil servant at that level of seniority”.

“I think he might not have recognised the fact that he’s saying something very negative to us about that level of seniority of a public servant.”

Ntuli added that the most important thing for the public to take on board is that they invite witnesses to come before the committee, “and we want them to help us”.

“In a situation like Mr Nkabinde, we are convinced that the witness did not properly prepare himself to come before that committee. He’s one of the key witnesses, so we would not want a situation where he appears before us and he provides information which is not cogent and adequate to inform the conclusions that we may have to make at the end of these proceedings as a committee.

“Some people may be disappointed that we did not continue with the proceedings and maybe further expose him, and somehow  delegitimise him. That’s not the job of Parliament,” Ntuli said.

“It may very well be that in some of the comments and the questions posed by some of us, we may be sending the wrong signal to the public that we are here to vandalise anyone who appears before the committee. That’s not our job.

“We are public representatives and these witnesses are our own guests, and you’ve got to treat your own guest in a dignified way, unless, of course, if they treat themselves in a way that betrays the kind of dignity you are expecting of them.”

theolin.tembo@inl.co.za

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