COPS AT WAR

SOUTH African police are at war - not with criminals, but within their own ranks.

In an explosive press briefing yesterday, KwaZulu-Natal’s top cop, Provincial Police Commissioner Lieutenant-General Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi levelled serious allegations against Police Minister Senzo Mchunu and Deputy National Commissioner Lieutenant-General Shadrack Sibiya.

This comes after national police commissioner General Fannie Masemola and other top cops were fingered in a recent Crime Intelligence racket bust. 

He proclaimed his boss was the Police Commissioner, no one else, and that the police minister had no rights nor powers to close down policing units.

Mkhwanazi made damning and alarming revelations, accusing Mchunu of interference in policing operations and of shutting down the political killings task team unit just as it was uncovering links between a powerful drug cartel and high-ranking politicians, police officers, and prosecutors.

He also said Mchunu had organised a private meeting between himself, Sibiya and Mkhwanazi, where he attempted to clear the bad blood between. 

Mkhwanazi remarked that “there can never be peace between a criminal and policeman”, he said, labelling the national crimes detection boss, Sibiya, as a criminal.

He added: “We are on combat mode, I am taking on the criminals directly… I am a police officer, who understood the task at hand when I joined the service.

“I chose the combating side of policing. I understand that at this present moment the war we are facing deals with high level senior officers.”

Mkhwanazi, dressed in his Special Task Force combat uniform, said that 121 case dockets were unexpectedly removed from the task team in March and subsequently shelved at the police head office in Pretoria.

According to Mkhwanazi, this action was reportedly taken under the directive of Sibiya, who is alleged to have acted on the orders of Mchunu.

The KZN hardliner said: “This was done without the authority of the National Commissioner, nor I as a Provincial Commissioner was ever informed.

“Five of these dockets had instructions to arrest perpetrators, but nothing has been done they are sitting in an archive in his office in Pretoria. God knows why.”

The commissioner alleged that the disbanded unit uncovered links between a national criminal syndicate, politicians, police officials, and senior prosecutors, possibly leading to pressure to halt their work.

He said: “I can confirm to South Africans today that the investigation these members were involved with in Gauteng has unmasked a syndicate. It involves politicians who are currently serving in Parliament.”

Mkhwanazi also accused Mchunu of misleading Parliament regarding his relationship with Brown Mokgotsi, an associate who had access to classified police documents and communicated about internal SAPS decisions, including the disbandment of the unit.