Cele’s violence task team incompetent, says monitor
KWAZULU-Natal violence monitor Mary de Haas has accused Police Minister Bheki Cele’s political violence task team of being incompetent in investigating high-profile political murders in the province.
De Haas was reacting to the withdrawal on Friday of murder charges after ANC activist Msawenkosi Mchunu was murdered. She said the task team should not have charged people with murder without enough evidence to secure a conviction.
“They are clearly incompetent, and we have a broken criminal justice system,” she said.
Mchunu, who was a staunch supporter President Cyril Ramaphosa before the 2017 ANC national conference, was shot and killed last year at his Pietermaritzburg home.
His murder was among those that Ramaphosa described as high-profile and assigned to the task team, which was made up officers from various provinces to probe political killings that had rocked KwaZulu-Natal since 2015.
The task team made a breakthrough by arresting four suspects, including Msunduzi Municipality councillor Nkosinathi Gambu and deputy mayor Fucwana Zungu’s son, Gift Zungu. However, the Pietermaritzburg Magistrate’s Court withdrew murder charges against all accused.
Mayor of Newcastle Municipality, Dr Ntuthuko Mahlaba, was also released two months ago after being in and out of the Madadeni Magistrate’s Court facing charges linked to ANC Youth League (ANCYL) leader Wandile Ngobeni’s death.
The task team had also arrested Harry Gwala District mayor Mluleki Ndobe for the murder of former ANCYL secretary-general Sindiso Magaqa, but Ndobe was also acquitted due to lack of evidence.
“I sometimes wonder if we will ever get successful prosecutions. I can understand if it was just one case, but it is a series of cases, and they are all high-profile cases,” said De Haas.
Cele’s spokesperson Lirandzu Themba said the minister was expecting a report from the task team with regard to the withdrawal of Mchunu’s case. She said Cele had “full” confidence in the task team as he was satisfied with its progress.
“Not withstanding hiccups which are much less than the gains that have been made. He (Cele) further states that the President today has even expressed how the murder rate has decreased in KZN since the installation of the task team and believes through improved working relations with the NDPP he is sure that the team will achieve its set targets,” said Themba.
Institute for Security Studies consultant Professor Johan Burger said there was a high possibility that the hitmen were professionals and were able to dodge the police.
“As they make it very difficult for this task team to connect them to these crimes, one can conclude that this task team was not as effective as one would have expected,” Burger said.