SAPS Inquiry: Crime Intelligence head Khumalo tells Parliament how SAPS turned on its own
Crime Intelligence head Lieutenant General Dumisani Khumalo has warned that criminal syndicates survive through close ties with politicians, law-enforcement officials, and business leaders who leak sensitive information to derail investigations.
Testifying before Parliament’s ad hoc committee probing allegations of criminal infiltration and political interference in the justice system, Khumalo described a policing environment where organised crime thrives on proximity to power.
Syndicates, he said, survive not through secrecy alone, but through access—access to politicians, senior law enforcement officials and influential business leaders who provide protection, intelligence and leverage.
“What makes it more difficult these days, especially within SAPS, it’s that they are syndicate members that are within our ranks.
“There are senior officers who are in close proximity to the syndicate members that we have to work with,” he told MPs in Cape Town on Thursday.
He said these seemingly harmless interactions are later weaponised to show closeness to power, compromise investigations and intimidate officers.
Khumalo said syndicate-linked officers operate inside SAPS itself, often close to sensitive operations.
He described how routine WhatsApp greetings with senior colleagues later appeared as screenshots on the phones of criminal suspects—used to suggest inside influence and weaken cases.
“That’s how they operate,” he said. “To show they have access to the head of Crime Intelligence.”
He told the committee he was a “living example” of how the system turns on those who confront entrenched interests.
Khumalo was arrested following internal and criminal processes linked to his official conduct—an arrest he has consistently disputed and framed as part of broader efforts to neutralise Crime Intelligence leadership amid factional battles within SAPS.
His treatment, he implied, sent a chilling message to others.
The operational strain has deepened following directives issued on December 31 by then police minister Senzo Mchunu, which froze the filling of senior Crime Intelligence posts and ordered the disbandment of the Political Killings Task Team (PKTT).
Khumalo said the decision crippled capacity, forced overtime and weakened intelligence-led policing.
National Commissioner, Gen. Fannie Masemola, has since indicated the posts would be re-advertised.
KZN police commissioner Lt-Gen. Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi told both the Madlanga Commission and the same parliamentary committee that the directives may have been driven by fears among criminal cartels under investigation.
kamogelo.moichela@iol.co.za
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