Cedric Nkabinde, chief of staff to suspended Police Minister Senzo Mchunu, accused KwaZulu-Natal Police Commissioner Lt-Gen Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi of lying to Parliament during his testimony on Thursday before the Ad Hoc Committee probing police corruption and political interference. Nkabinde denied Mkhwanazi’s claim that he orchestrated an introduction between Mkhwanazi and Mchunu in Empangeni, asserting instead that Mkhwanazi initiated the meeting himself.
Testifying under oath, Nkabinde described his longstanding friendship with Mkhwanazi, forged during their days as police investigators, and stressed that he had “nothing to hide” in volunteering for the hearing to correct the record.
The Disputed Empangeni Meeting
Mkhwanazi, in his October testimony, alleged that Nkabinde—then recently appointed as Mchunu’s chief of staff in the Department of Water and Sanitation while still unemployed in policing—arranged a suspicious trip to Empangeni to introduce him to Mchunu shortly before the latter’s July 2024 move to Police Minister. Mkhwanazi claimed Nkabinde had “no clue” about the chief of staff role and was using the encounter to gain undue influence.
Nkabinde vehemently rejected the account as a “fabrication,” stating: “General Mkhwanazi lied to Parliament when he claimed I brought him to Empangeni to be introduced to Senzo Mchunu.” He recounted that Mkhwanazi approached him months earlier for a casual meet-up in the Empangeni area, asking Nkabinde to accompany him. The gathering at Mchunu’s residence included former IPID head Robert McBride, whom Nkabinde knew from his IPID days, and was a relaxed arrangement among acquaintances—not a calculated introduction, Nkabindi insisted. Both Mchunu and McBride had no objections to Mkhwanazi’s presence, he added.
Whistleblowing Fallout and IPID Exit
In a related revelation, Nkabinde detailed his 2018 dismissal from IPID, attributing it to a whistleblower report he submitted to then-Police Minister Bheki Cele on April 28, implicating McBride and private investigator Paul O’Sullivan in misconduct. The report, meant to expose irregularities, somehow reached McBride, who “got very upset” and suspended Nkabinde immediately, leading to his eventual exit via a confidential settlement. Nkabinde claimed Cele later used the report to block McBride’s contract renewal, though the settlement did not “sweep it under the carpet.”