CAPE TOWN – Deputy National Commissioner Lieutenant General Shadrack Sibiya says he was never part of any meeting that discussed the dissolution of the Police’s Political Killings Task Team (PKTT).
He added that he never met with Lt-General Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi, National Commissioner Fannie Masemola, Lt-General Dumisani Khumalo or Police Minister Senzo Mchunu to address the winding down of the unit.
Sibiya made the claim on Tuesday before Parliament’s ad hoc committee probing allegations made by KwaZulu-Natal Police Commissioner Mkhwanazi on July 6.
He was responding to questions from ANC MP Xola Nqola, who pressed him on conflicting reports around the disbandment of the task team.
“I’ve never sat in a meeting where the political killings task team was being discussed and General Mkhwanazi was involved,” Sibiya said.
Sibiya rejected suggestions that there were two separate plans to dissolve the unit, one from him and another from Masemola.
He insisted that what is believed to be his own plan was in fact an action plan issued from the National Commissioner’s Office, based on a directive to communicate the deactivation of the team.
“There are no two plans. There is one plan, and that plan is that of the national commissioner,” Sibiya said.
“You don’t have a Sibiya plan. The plan that is supposedly so, is the one that comes from the National Commissioner’s Office through his office managers.”
The committee heard earlier that National Commissioner Masemola, in his statement, claimed the PKTT had not yet been dissolved because the minister of Police had not signed off on his proposed plan.
However, Sibiya said he had never received any formal written instruction from Masemola to delay implementation of the disbandment directive.
“If the national commissioner was of the opinion that I am not cooperating, he would have officially written to me and said: Hold back your horses until further notice,” Sibiya said.
While he agreed that political killings were still prevalent in the country, albeit at a lower rate, Sibiya defended the decision to disband the task team, stating that its work had largely achieved its purpose, with stability restored in most districts except eThekwini.
“We can’t keep the PKTT only to attend to one district now,” he argued. “Let us refocus the energy and the resources and the budget to where they are needed.”
He added that the PKTT’s functions were being integrated into the SAPS murder and robbery unit as part of a broader restructuring, which would enable a permanent structure with nationwide reach and capacity to tackle serious violent crimes, including political killings.
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