Pretoria – Parliament’s Portfolio Committee on Police failed to exercise its oversight mandate when KwaZulu-Natal police commissioner Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi first raised allegations of political interference, criminality and corruption, the Madlanga Commission heard on Thursday.
Petronella Margaretha van Rooyen, head of the South African Police Service’s legal division, testified that Mkhwanazi had briefed the committee in March before going public in July, yet no action was taken.
She said the committee had powers to summon SAPS management and demand explanations, adding that its delay amounted to a breach of its constitutional duty.
Major-General Petronella van Rooyen says Parliament failed its oversight role by ignoring political interference allegations made by General Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi months before he went public with them, in his 6th July 2025 explosive media briefing. pic.twitter.com/RPy1T1nINu
— MDN NEWS (@MDNnewss) September 25, 2025
“I believe that the issue that General Mkhwanazi publicly announced on the 6th of July was previously reported during a PCOP meeting in March, if I remember correctly.
“So the fact that the portfolio committee didn’t act on that is in my mind a failure of their mandate.
“Even if they initiated an investigation, called the management of the police to come and explain, that we’d already have been an exercise of oversight on their part to ensure that the matter received attention,” she said.
[WATCH] SAPS Major-General Petronella van Rooyen says, “I am of the view that the decision to disband the PKTT lay within the exclusive authority of the National Commissioner, and that the minister did not have the legislative authority to disband the PKTT, let alone the manner… pic.twitter.com/Z9hZpQgal1
— SABC News (@SABCNews) September 25, 2025
An ad hoc committee has since been established and will begin public hearings on 7 October with Mkhwanazi as the first witness.
Other expected witnesses include Police Minister Senzo Mchunu, National Commissioner Fannie Masemola, Deputy Commissioner Shadrack Sibiya, Acting Minister Firoz Cachalia and possibly President Cyril Ramaphosa.
Van Rooyen also told the commission that Mchunu had no authority to disband the SAPS political killings task team, describing his December 2024 instruction to National Commissioner Masemola as an unlawful operational decision outside the minister’s mandate.
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Compiled by Betha Madhomu
