National Police Commissioner, General Fannie Masemola, has ordered that 121 dockets be returned to KwaZulu-Natal Commissioner, Lieutenant-General Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi, who will then assign them to the political task team.
The dockets were taken in March this year by suspended Deputy National Commissioner Lieutenant-General Shadrack Sibiya, on the instruction of suspended police minister, Senzo Mchunu.
The confiscation of the dockets was revealed by Mkhwanazi, during an explosive briefing last month, where he alleged the political task team was disbanded, after it discovered syndicates that involved senior police officials, politicians, judiciary and drug cartels.
Briefing the media on the side-lines of the 27th Interpol African Regional Conference in Cape Town, Masemola said he issued a letter two weeks ago for the files to be returned to KwaZulu-Natal.
“They were traced at the headquarters, and I’ve given a directive that they return to the province of KwaZulu-Natal for investigation.
“The detectives are busy making copies, and from there, they’ll be sent back to the provincial commissioner.
He will allocate them back to the political killings task team and investigations will continue,” said Masemola.
In addition, Masemola said the detectives will follow correct procedures when verifying the dockets, to check if they were not tampered with when they were taken from KwaZulu-Natal five months ago.
“When they were taken in, they were checked so the same process is what they’re doing now. This in case there are some disparities they would be able to pick them up. They’re going to check them against the records when they came in from KwaZulu-Natal,” explained Masemola.
The Commissioner acknowledged that despite the dockets being returned to the political task team, they don’t expect imminent arrests soon, as the teams have resuscitated their investigations.
“By nature, the dockets that are carried by the political task team are not simple, they’re very complicated and it is not easy to investigate them. They’re quite complex, they vary from murder, attempted murder, intimidation, in their nature they’re very complex during the investigations,” cautioned Masemola.
Despite uncertainties about the political task team, Masemola guaranteed that the team is still working, despite initial plans to disband it.
He said the team is also assisting Gauteng police to resolve some of the unresolved cases that they are investigating, that include the murder of politicians and taxi related killings.
Masemola said a similar team will be established in Gauteng in the next four weeks.
