Police minister Mchunu clears the air on Mkhwanazi complaint

Minister of Police Senzo Mchunu says he was not the one who laid a complaint against KwaZulu-Natal’s (KZN) top cop.

Mkhwanazi is being forced to respond following an anonymous complaint lodged against him in relation to an incident involving an official at a correctional services facility.

A weekend report claimed Mchunu had lodged a complaint with the Independent Police Investigative Directorate (Ipid) over the matter.

However, Ipid said a “letter written to Lt-General Mkhwanazi by Ipid’s Acting Head of Investigations that the Police Minister requested Ipid to investigate the Provincial Commissioner was erroneously written”.

Mchunu also distanced himself from the complaint.

“I do want to repeat that I have not laid any complaint against Lieutenant General Mkhwanazi,” the minister reaffirmed on Monday.

“Mkhwanazi, like all the other Provincial Commissioners, is working hard in the fight against crime in KZN, and that is duly recognised by the ministry,” he added.

However, Ipid has given Lieutenant General Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi until Wednesday to respond to allegations of abuse of power. Minister Mchunu backed the decision.

ALSO READ: Mkhwanazi given deadline to submit a sworn affidavit to Ipid over allegations

He stressed the ministry’s commitment to an effective, efficient, and hardworking police force and expressed his faith in Ipid’s objectivity.

“As an independent and impartial oversight body, Ipid conducts its investigations without external influence, and its decisions regarding cases under its jurisdiction are made independently,” Mchunu said.

Allegations previously addressed

Mkhwanazi had previously addressed alleged “smear campaigns” during an appearance before the Portfolio Committee on Police on 5 March.

Mkhwanazi alleged that Saps members facing questions about their professional ethics used whatever tools they had at their disposal to discredit disciplinary queries.

“The modus operandi is for them to go to the media to make themself look good and sadly so, they even approach honourable members, and they use them as their mouthpiece and justify their evil deeds,” Mkhwanazi told the portfolio committee.

KZN’s provincial commissioner was already allegedly aware of the fallout around the course of action that he is now being investigated over.

He alleged that a group of senior officials had been deployed to the province over which he had no jurisdiction.

“The members were deployed by head office to look after the interests of one company in the province of KZN,” Mkhwanazi said.

“Myself and the district commissioner could not control them, and nobody could ask them questions,” he explained.

ALSO READ: Ipid probes KZN top cop Mkhwanazi for allegedly abusing his power

Mkhwanazi said he found out from a regional commissioner that the group allegedly arrested a correctional services official they believed was selling drugs from staff quarters at a prison.

“They then went there without a search warrant. They went inside the premises, searched the entire premises, and couldn’t find anything,” he said.

Mkhwanazi said a package was later found in a dustbin, but he intervened because there was not sufficient evidence to blame the correctional services official.

“We are indebted with a number of civil claims… and we should not be seen to be violating the rights of individuals.

“Our purpose for arrest is because we want to secure people to come to court when we have investigated the cases,” said Mkhwanazi.

Ipid subject to ‘political pressure’

Criminologist and lecturer Dr Guy Lamb told The Citizen that “there is a lot of political pressure on the head of Ipid”.

While incidents of politically motivated investigations were sporadic, Lamb said they could happen when disputes between large personalities took an “intense turn”.

Lamb explained that Mkhwanazi’s popularity in KZN was based on his willingness to lead from the front and his history of operational success.

Lamb was asked if the claims against Mkhwanazi and Ipid’s investigation could stifle police’s momentum in the province, where more than 100 suspects have been killed in exchanges with police.

‘If there is intense scrutiny at station level, officers may be more cautious when using their weapons or at least ensuring that there is just cause for doing so,” Lamb said.

ALSO READ: KZN police slam ‘poorly plotted allegations’ against commissioner Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi