Weekend Argus (Saturday Edition)
New team of top officers to probe political killings
POLICE Minister Bheki Cele has announced the appointment of a new team of experienced police officers and State prosecutors to continue investigations into political killings in KwaZulu-Natal.
“As a way of progress, we have taken a decision to change the members of the task team that was responsible for the investigations into the political killings. The new team has 118 new members plus eight members from the previous task team,” Cele said in Durban.
The new team included “experienced and seasoned” detectives from KwaZuluNatal, Gauteng, Mpumalanga, the Eastern Cape and Western Cape, and was led by acting provincial commissioner Lieutenant-General Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi.
Cele said the National Prosecuting Authority had seconded 16 “experienced and seasoned prosecutors” to ensure effective case management and prosecutions.
Action by the new team included the arrest a fortnight ago of six people in connection with political killings. Two firearms were recovered that had been linked to eight cases.
The renewed focus formed part of a national drive to bring all provinces to a point of “stabilisation” in terms of crime, which was reaping fruit. “You may recall that at the beginning of June this year the national commissioner of police and myself pronounced on the implementation of stabilisation interventions throughout the country… the country has been plagued by a number of crimes of fear, including political killings in KwaZulu-Natal,” Cele said.
Since June, police have arrested 512 suspects in KwaZulu-Natal for the illegal possession of firearms and seized 706 illegal firearms, including semi- automatic rifles, high-powered rifles and home-made guns, and 6 045 rounds of ammunition.
The task team was established in May after President Cyril Ramaphosa ordered the Cabinet’s security cluster to ensure all high- profile and political murder cases in the province were solved, saying KwaZulu-Natal could not be allowed to become “the killing fields” of the country.
Ramaphosa gave the instruction after visiting the family of ANC activist Musawenkosi “Maqatha” Mchunu, who was gunned down at his Pietermaritzburg home on May 11. Mchunu had demanded that the ANC regional executive be disbanded and that corruption in municipalities in the uMgungundlovu district be investigated.
Hours before his murder, IFP councillor Sibuyiselo Dlamini, 35, was shot dead on a highway outside Ulundi.
Their deaths brought the number of suspected political killings in the province to at least 80 since 2011, though independent researchers say the number is as high as 110. – African News Agency (ANA)