Lieutenant-General Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi is back at the Madlanga Commission on Thursday morning to elaborate on his claims that South Africa’s policing and criminal justice system has been subverted by criminal networks, aided by dodgy politicians.
On Wednesday, Mkhwanazi – the KwaZulu-Natal police commissioner – testified for nearly six hours in Pretoria, Brigitte Mabandla Justice College, telling commission chair retired justice Mbuyiseli Madlanga and evidence leaders that Senzo Mchunu, then as full-time police commissioner, was seemingly influenced by nefarious forces to collapse the highly effective KwaZulu-Natal Political Killings Task Team.
“To me, it was a wrong conclusion that the minister has reached, which is why it became a matter of concern. The minister’s conclusion of saying that the team does not add any value in policing in South Africa was misplaced.
“It is my belief that perhaps, as I had said in the public in the very same month of January, that someone influenced the minister to do this,” Mkhwanazi said on day one of the proceedings, as part of his length testimony.
DAY TWO: WATCH MKHWANAZI LIVE AT MADLANGA COMMISSION
How commission came about
On 6 July 2025, Mkhwanazi – surrounded by a legion of Special Task Force members during a press conference in KwaZulu-Natal – told South Africans that some South African Police Service officers, the judiciary, prosecutors, politicians and Correctional Services officials, were allegedly part of a crime syndicate controlled by a drug cartel.
These allegations would eventually spur President Cyril Ramaphosa into instituting the Judicial Commission of Inquiry into Criminality, Political Interference and Corruption in the Criminal Justice System, known as Madlanga Commission.
Mkhwanazi’s claims led to Mchunu being forced into a leave of absence as minister of police by President Cyril Ramaphosa, essentially a suspension with full pay.
Firoz Cachalia was then appointed as stand-in minister of police, a decision the uMkhonto weSizwe Party is challenging in court, claiming the Constitution does not allow for two police ministers.
