Fannie Masemola says Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi won't be persecuted, confirms threats to his life

National commissioner of the South African Police Service (SAPS), General Fannie Masemola, on Wednesday revealed that Kwa-Zulu-Natal provincial police commissioner, Lieutenant General Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi has been receiving threats and his security has been beefed up.

Mkhwanazi has dominated public discourse in South Africa after he made damning allegations against Police Minister Senzo Mchunu, deputy national police commissioner, Lieutenant General Shadrack Sibiya, and other high placed authorities in South Africa on Sunday.

Masemola addressed journalists virtually, on Wednesday, from a facility in Vanderbijlpark, Gauteng, where said that the security system around the provincial commissioner has been upgraded.

Asked if he is to take any action against Mkhwanazi, the national police commissioner said he was awaiting President Cyril Ramaphosa's intervention. However, Masemola made it clear that he would not be persecuting Mkhwanazi.

"In terms of physical protection, he has been getting threats to his life in that province. We have beefed up his security but he won't be persecuted from my side, surely there will be no persecution of any member of the South African Police Service.

"Not only him, but anyone."

According to Mkhwanazi, the police minister, in cahoots with Sibiya, took actions to disband the political killings task team unit and retrieved the case dockets for them to be locked up under lock and key, in the Pretoria offices of Sibiya.

Mkhwanazi said some of the dockets had uncovered a crime syndicate involving underworld figures, politicians, prosecutors, judges and senior police. He said the closure of the political task team unit, allegedly engineered by Mchunu and not by the police commissioner Masemola, has sparked the rising tensions and a series of events, including the wholesale arrests of officers by the  Investigating Directorate Against Corruption, a unit within the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA). 

A defiant Mkhwanazi said he would be opening a case against Mchunu for alleged interference in policing matters.

On Wednesday, Masemola said he does not know the reasons behind the attempt to close the political killings task team unit.

"I do not want to dwell more in that regard. I do not know. I don't know the reasons but I am sure you heard Mkhwanazi saying after Vusimuzi 'Cat' Matlala was arrested as to what the reasons were. So I do not want to get deeper into that.

During a marathon press conference on Sunday, Mkhwanazi, declared he was combat-ready and that he was willing to die for the people of South Africa.

He accused the police ministry of interference in police operations and detailed how the minister and his associate, Mogotsi, had been entangled with a SAPS service provider, Matlala, who had been awarded a R360 million tender with the law enforcement agency in 2024. 

In May, Masemola repealed the contract citing that Matlala's company should never have made it past the first round during the bidding process. 

Mkhwanazi said the recent arrest of Matlala - on attempted murder charges - led police to uncover - through cellphone analysis, a web of alleged corruption involving the service provider Matlala Mogotsi and the minister.

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