Mchunu's chief of staff was clueless about what was required to do his job - Mkhwanazi

In a gripping session at the parliamentary inquiry, KwaZulu-Natal police commissioner Lieutenant-General Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi shed light on the controversial appointment of Cedric Nkabinde as chief of staff by Police Minister Senzo Mchunu. 

During his testimony on Tuesday night, Mkhwanazi suggested that Nkabinde entered the position without a comprehensive understanding of what a chief of staff entails.

“My impression is Mr Nkabinde was appointed a minister’s chief of staff and had no clue what a chief of staff does. He had to learn as he was going,” he said.

The police commissioner indicated that Nkabinde had turned to the minister's former chief of staff for guidance, further illustrating his inexperience

“That is why when the minister allegedly called him to ask him to be the chief of staff, Nkabinde phoned me and asked me what a chief of staff does, he had no clue,” he said.

Mkhwanazi said Nkabinde told him about his appointment before he was appointed.

He had doubts that the former police officer would able to deal with administrative issues or the strategic role.

Mkhwanazi said he met Mchunu before he was appointed as the Minister of Police in a meeting arranged by Nkabinde.

“Besides knowing the minister as the former Premier (of KwaZulu-Natal), I then personally met the minister in his own house a few weeks before his appointment to the police.”

He said the meeting was arranged by Nkabinde, who had wanted to introduce to him to Mchunu to demonstrate how close he was to the minister when he was still at the Department of Water and Sanitation.

“So I drove with him to his house. We drank coffee and we got to know each other and that was that.”

Mkhwanazi revealed that he knew Nkabinde from when Nkabinde had worked at IPID (Independent Police Investigative Directorate).

Nkabinde had left the SAPS as junior police officer to join IPID as he had been seeking “greener pastures”.

Asked why Nkabinde left IPID, Mkhwanazi said he Nkabinde told him that he did not like how former IPID head Robert McBride, forensic investigator Paul O’Sullivan and former head of investigations Matthew Sesoko did business at the time.

 “What I know is there were issues. He was resigning and they were charging him departmentally.”

He said he still needed to establish the relationship between Mchunu and Nkabinde.

Mkhwanazi said Nkabinde told him that he and McBride had met Mchunu at his residence to tell him about a criminal investigation they were busy with at IPID.

“It would appear that at the time the minister might have been implicated on that case but the two of them somehow had a working arrangement with the minister.”

Apparently there was a complaint of police involvement and Mchunu had to a degree done wrong, but was never arrested in the incident involving bodyguards. “I don’t have details of it,” Mkhwanazi said.

Mkhwanazi said Mchunu had never engaged him nor National Commissioner Fannie Masemola or his deputy Dumisani Khumalo, about disbanding or receiving briefings on the Political Killing Task Team.

He said the first person he contacted after he learnt of Mchunu’s letter to disband the PKTT was Nkabinde, who according to him, said the letter was going back and forth between Mchunu and whoever was drafting it.

“That made me believe the minister is not the author. Someone else prepared this letter and the minister signed it,” he said, adding that Nkabinde was pressured to deliver it to Masemola’s office on December 31, 2024.

“He did not say who the author is. He was pressured to ensure the letter was submitted. I concluded someone was behind this letter. He had to facilitate, for it to be signed by the minister.”

Mkhwanazi said he had been speaking to Nkabinde for the first six months of this year, but that stopped when held his explosive media briefing on July 6.

He revealed that his last heart-to-heart talk with Nkabinde was at Birchwood Hotel in Gauteng.

It was at this meeting that Nkabinde told him that Brown Mogotsi was very close to Mchunu.

mayibongwe.maqhina@inl.co.za