‘It did tremendous work’ — Ramaphosa on KZN political killings task team

Ramaphosa

Cape Town – President Cyril Ramaphosa has defended the now-disbanded KwaZulu-Natal political killings task team, saying it did “tremendous work” in curbing politically motivated murders.

“The political task team on the killings in KZN has been doing its work and it has done tremendous work,” Ramaphosa said while speaking to the media on Friday during a high-level meeting with the Northern Cape Provincial Executive.

“The killings then started coming down in KZN, the political killings. So the complaints that have been raised by the KZN police commissioner have to be investigated.

“That is why I set up a commission, and I expect that this commission, whose terms of reference are now out, will work very quickly and we put clear time frames. We would like a report within three months and another report within another three months. So I’m looking at a period which is no more than a year. In fact, I would like to get to the bottom of all this… within a short space of time.”

The president also acknowledged that the timeline might be extended if necessary.

“If they need time to be extended, then we will talk to the judge and see how much time needs to be extended. But this is a commission that everyone in the country would like to see quick answers coming from.”

This comes despite explosive claims from provincial police commissioner Lieutenant-General Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi, who accused Police Minister Senzo Mchunu, currently on special leave, of political interference and protecting criminals by disbanding the unit.

Mkhwanazi alleges the March shutdown of the task team derailed 121 active murder cases and was a strategic move to protect a criminal syndicate linked to politicians, law enforcement, judges, and businesspeople.

He said the unit had dealt with 612 cases and secured over 100 convictions since 2018.

Ramaphosa has since established a judicial commission of inquiry, led by Deputy Chief Justice Mbuyiseli Madlanga, to investigate the corruption and political interference claims.

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