Mchunu defended his decision to disband the political killings task team.
Members of Parliament (MPs) have accused Police Minister Senzo Mchunu of undermining their intelligence as he faced further questioning over his directive to disband the political killings task team (PKTT) immediately.
Mchunu appeared before Parliament’s ad hoc committee at the Good Hope Chamber in Cape Town on Wednesday.
The minister – currently on special leave – faces allegations that he disbanded the PKTT to halt investigations into a drug cartel.
Mchunu defends PKTT disbandment
During the proceedings, Mchunu defended his decision to instruct National Police Commissioner Fannie Masemola to dismantle the task team.
The minister had sent a letter dated 31 December 2024 – which he claims he personally wrote that day – directing Masemola to disband the PKTT immediately.
He also requested a report on the disbandment from Masemola, who was on leave at the time, by the end of January.
Previously, the minister argued that when he wrote “immediately”, he did not mean it literally, but intended for the task team to be phased out.
However, ANC chief whip Mdumiseni Ntuli on Wednesday questioned why the minister used the word if that was not his intention.
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Mchunu responded that Masemola understood his directive, as the police commissioner had planned a phased approach.
He used an analogy, saying one might announce they are headed to Johannesburg, but then wait at the airport for “an hour or two”.
“We don’t need to be fussy and rigid in terms of the meaning of immediate even though it has to be applied,” Mchunu said.
The minister added that when he wrote the letter, he had wanted a preliminary report by 20 January.
“I know you don’t stick with your dates necessarily like a robot. Sometimes, things get postponed.”
‘Blatant undermining of our intelligence’
MK party MP David Skosana interjected, accusing Mchunu and Ntuli of insulting committee members.
“Minister, I think you must accept that immediate means immediately, not what you are trying to [explain].
“The way you are responding to us is like we are going around the bush. We understand exactly what immediate means. Please respect us minister,” he said.
ActionSA MP Dereleen James expressed similar sentiments.
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“There’s a clear language barrier that is evident in this room that we have been entertaining for the last couple of days and we have been dragging on issues based on the simple meaning of words.
“Chair, we cannot continue like this. It takes up so much time in every engagement with so much of the members, we have had to unpack what the word immediately means and so many other words.
“Please protect us from this blatant undermining of our intelligence,” James said.
Committee chairperson Soviet Lekganyane, however, ruling Skosana and James out of order, stated that Mchunu had repeatedly tried to explain himself using examples.
“A swimming pool must stay a swimming pool and immediately must remain immediately. I don’t see us wasting any time, chief whip, trying to discuss English words. It’s very clear.”
Lekganyane added that he wanted the committee to move away from being “hostages of semantics”.
Watch the ad hoc committee inquiry below:
‘The word means now’
MK party MP Sibonelo Nomvalo sarcastically suggested the committee may have been too harsh on Mchunu.
“Maybe he has a source that he uses which describes the word differently because dictionaries are used here in South Africa to get a meaning of the word.
“The name immediately has been used even by the office of the president to say ‘this decision is effective with immediate effect.’”
Nomvalo said he personally checked the Oxford and Cambridge dictionaries to confirm the meaning.
“The word means now, it doesn’t mean anything else.”
Earlier, James asked Mchunu whether it would be in the country’s best interest for him to resign.
“I don’t know what you are talking about,” the minister responded.
He added: “We are in an ad hoc committee, and we are dealing with the problems at the moment. What you are introducing, I can’t answer.”
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