Suspended police minister Senzo Mchunu. Photo: Delwyn Verasamy

KwaZulu-Natal acting deputy provincial commissioner Major-General Anthony Gopaul testified on Monday that suspended Police Minister Senzo Mchunu visited a police station while wearing ANC regalia and demanded swift action in cases involving a ward councillor who had defected to the uMkhonto weSizwe (MK) party.

Gopaul was giving evidence at the Madlanga Commission which is investigating claims of political interference in policing functions made by KwaZulu-Natal police commissioner Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi. The inquiry resumed on Monday after a break late last year.

Gopaul said Mchunu arrived at a local police station and called for investigations into cases involving Doshie Govender, including the immediate arrest of his son in connection with a housebreaking case.

“I explained to the minister that whilst we wanted to assist him, the difficulty was that it was unclear in what capacity he approached us,” Gopaul said.

He told the commission that Mchunu was wearing an ANC T-shirt and that “his comrades placed him in a predicament and wanted to see basically how he uses that position”.

“The minister was of the opinion that the community has a sense of frustration that we are doing nothing about Mr Govender and his son’s behaviour,” said Gopaul.

He said he informed Mchunu that the housebreaking case had been withdrawn because the witness statement was no longer admissible.

Gopaul said “it was slightly uncomfortable” that the entire community was suddenly angry with “somebody who had won the previous landslide elections”, adding that Mchunu’s complaints related only to Govender, which was unusual. 

He said it was “a bit odd and mischievous” that Govender’s alleged criminal conduct was raised only after he had defected from the ANC to the MK party.

“According to the minister, the police officers were doing nothing until we unpacked each and every case that the particular candidate was charged for previously and the outcomes of those cases, and there [were] no new cases,” he said.

Gopaul also testified about a separate interaction with Mchunu after the killing of Mandeni local municipality ward councillor Phendukani Mabhida, who was shot by unknown gunmen at his home in KwaSithebe township.

He said Mchunu contacted him after the shooting and was briefed on what had occurred. The matter was initially investigated by a political killings task team that has been at the centre of the inquiry, an arrangement Mchunu questioned. 

Mchunu disbanded the task team in a directive via WhatsApp in December 2024. Mkhwanazi, national police commissioner Fannie Masemola and task team leader and crime intelligence boss Dumisani Khumalo have testified that Mchunu was instigated by criminal cartels.

Mchunu has denied the accusation and said he was implementing a police research study which recommended the task team’s disbandment. 

“The first I came to understand some kind of contention around this issue of the political task team and the minister was when I viewed and watched the portfolio committee where General Mkhwanazi was narrating a story about the political task team,” Gopaul said on Monday.

He told the hearing that the issues raised by the minister were not “a space of sphere of discussion in our span of control” at provincial level. Gopaul said he received a call from Mchunu asking him to brief him about developments related to the investigation of the Mabhida murder case.

“Later I came to understand that the interest in the specific person, Mr Mabhida, was because he was an ANC councillor, the minister is from the ANC, and even in the subsequent, which I will get to, the minister attended the funeral and had a particular interest in that councillor because he was in the ANC,” he said.

At the time, Gopaul was the district commissioner in the area where the murder occurred and where the investigating police station is based.

He said the arrest of suspects on charges of possession of an unlicensed firearm later led to links with the Mabhida murder. Gopaul said he had passed the information on to the political killings task team.

He testified that he briefed Mchunu that the suspects linked to the councillor’s murder would appear in court on the firearm charges and thereafter, would be transferred to the task team.

“I only indicated to the minister that the two suspects that we had arrested for unlinked possession of firearm through the interview process we can now say that we’ve linked them to the murder of councillor Mabhida and that we will then be processing them for this particular crime after they’ve appeared in this court,” he said.

Gopaul said that while attending Mabhida’s funeral, Mchunu again contacted him for an update on the investigation. He requested an update from the investigating officer, who replied that any further updates should be directed to the provincial commissioner, Mkhwanazi. 

“The investigating officer then messaged me to indicate he will update the provincial commissioner on where they are in the investigation and that if the minister needs any further updates, he can contact the provincial commissioner,” Gopaul said.

He relayed the message to Mchunu, who responded: “Now covered.”

Gopaul told the hearing that was the first time he had been directly contacted by a minister, noting that politicians typically communicate with the provincial commissioner.

“From my training and my 35 years of historical institutionalised protocol, it is not in accordance with the law of protocol for me to interact with the minister without the specific direction of my principal,” he said.