Mkhwanazi reiterates suspicion that Mchunu was captured – SABC News

KwaZulu-Natal Police Commissioner Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi says he is still convinced that Police Minister Senzo Mchunu, who has been placed on special leave, was not the mastermind behind the letter to disband the Political Killings Task Team.
He is rounding up his testimony as the last witness before Parliament’s Ad Hoc Committee that is looking into concerns of national security.
Mkhwanazi told MPs he believed that Mchunu was new in the police organisation and had fallen victim to bad influences.
During his testimony before the committee, Mchunu reassured MPs that he was not told or influenced to write the letter and that he wrote it himself.
Mkhwanazi repeated his suspicion that Mchunu was captured.
“Minister Mchunu was new in organisation. I say he was captured to write that letter. I still believe, I am still convinced Minister Mchunu was made to do what he did. So are many other leaders that are made to do what they do.”

AD HOC COMMITTEE | Lt Gen Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi says the 6 July press briefing was not intended to portray Minister Mchunu as evil, but to highlight a person seen as an obstacle to the administration of justice. pic.twitter.com/bTS7xxdsEU
— SABC News (@SABCNews) March 18, 2026

Senthumule PKTT claims
During his testimony, Mkhwanazi indicated he became aware about the removal of the PKTT dockets from KwaZulu-Natal to the Pretoria headquarters through Lieutenant-General Hilda Senthumule, who is the Divisional Commissioner for Detectives and Forensic Services.
Mkhwanazi says he suspects that Senthumule might have been the author of the letter that authorised the removal of the dockets on behalf of the suspended Deputy National Police Commissioner for Crime Detection, Shadrack Sibiya.
“But this I brought to this Ad Hoc Committee to show the committee that what you see may not necessarily be the truth. She is a person who came here to present herself as the good person, but this is what she is busy with. I don’t have a date when this recording happened. Maybe it was prior the instruction or after the instruction. But from these recordings, I deduct that she knew the letters are written by Sibiya. Perhaps she might have been the author of those letters on behalf of Sibiya. I do not know,” adds Mkhwanazi.
Clearance certificate
Meanwhile, Mkhwanazi says he has been working without a security clearance certificate for almost 10 years after it expired in 2018.
Mkhwanazi told committee that when it comes to the issuing of new security clearance certificates, the office of crime intelligence is responsible.
Mkhwanazi made the allegations in July last year. He explains the process of receiving a security clearance certificate.
“On record honourable chair and the members, my last security clearance, a top secret that I had, expired in 2018. It expired in 2018 and in 2013 I submitted an application to state security. State security did everything. Polygraphy, everything ticked the box but they could not issue that (certificate) because there is this false star who is an IPID person in KwaZulu-Natal at the time who said to the State Security Agency there is a case…I am told a hit squad or something like that happened in KZN in 2013 (and) that I am implicated in it. I have never worked in KZN in 2013.”
 

AD HOC COMMITTEE | Lt Gen Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi says he was never in any meeting that discussed the dissolution of the PKTT. He adds that he tried to reach out to Minister Mchunu in January, soon after learning of the letter, but was not successful. pic.twitter.com/pmVC9OuG30
— SABC News (@SABCNews) March 18, 2026

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