General Bheki Cele
Inter Ministerial Committee on Political Killings
Thursday 13 September 2018

Minister of Defence, Ms Nosiviwe Mapisa-Ngqakula; Minister of Justice, Mr Michael Masutha; Minister of State Security Agency, Ms Dipuo Letsatsi-Duba; Acting Premier of KZN, Mr Sihle Zikalala; MEC for Transport, Community Safety and Liaison, Mr Mxolisi Kaunda; National Commissioner of the SAPS, General Khehla Sitole; Representatives from NPA, Correctional Services, Justice and SSA Acting KZN Provincial Commissioner, Lt General Mkhwanazi; Senior officers present; Members of the media; Ladies and Gentleman;

Receive our greetings this afternoon on behalf of the Inter-Ministerial Committee (IMC) that was appointed by the President of the Republic of South Africa; His Excellency President Cyril Matamela Ramaphosa. The purpose of this media briefing is to report back on the further progress of the investigations on the political killings related cases in KwaZulu-Natal. (KZN)

As the Security Cluster, we have been instructed by the President to work on mechanisms to speedily resolve all political related killings in KZN. At the last IMC meeting, we announced major changes with regards to the composition of the KZN Political Killings Task Team. It now comprises of 118 Members from various law enforcement agencies.

The IMC has witnessed the task team working tirelessly in investigating the reported cases and securing convictions in other cases.

Members of the media, you may recall that the IMC issued a directive to the task team to co-ordinate its activities and be prosecutorial and intelligence driven based. The recent successes can be attributed to the co-ordinated efforts of all law enforcement agencies involved in this project.

During the previous IMC briefing on the 05th of July 2018, the Task Team had a total of 126 case dockets allocated, which have since increased to 137. The reason of this increase amongst other things, is because some of the cases that were not referred to the Task Team initially.

The 137 case dockets are from the all over the Province of KZN. Investigations of the above case dockets are indeed showing significant progress. The continuous Prosecutorial Guided Investigations (PGI), engagements between prosecutors and investigators are yielding positive results in the ongoing investigations. It must be noted that this kind of PGI was lacking in the previous Task Team.

Ladies and gentlemen it gives us great pleasure to announce that some of the case dockets are in the final stages of investigations and some are before various Courts with the Province.

Since the announcement of the Task Team in July 2018, a total of 28 suspects have been arrested out of 12 cases.

Out of 28 suspects arrested:

• 22 are in custody
• 2 are on bail
• 4 have been released following further investigations

• 8 pistols (9mm)
• 01 - revolver
• 126 - ammunition
• 08 - magazines

Members of the media, as of this morning, a suspect who is linked to the killing of the late ANCYL former Secretary General Mr Sindiso Magaqa appeared in the uMzimkhulu Regional Court, his matter has been remanded to the 23rd September 2018 for a formal bail hearing.

On the 11th of September 2018 six suspects who are linked to the killing of Mr Musawenkosi “Maqatha” Mchunu appeared in the Pietermaritzburg Regional Court, and their matter was remanded for formal bail application on the 20th of September 2018.

In other very significant achievements Fisokuhle Ntuli was arrested in connection for at least 16 cases. Ntuli has been linked to eight counts of murder including the murder of three brothers of the Zulu family as well as other witnesses, cases of attempted murder and unlawful possession of firearms and ammunition.

Ladies and Gentleman this is just the beginning and we are confident that more arrests will be made quite sooner than expected.

While we consider these successes to be very significant it is even more encouraging to note that from 20 finalized dockets thus far, three cases have been finalized within a period of three months.

Over and above the allocated political related cases, the Task Team is conducting intelligence-driven operations which have led to 30 arrested suspects on 30 cases and 21 firearms were recovered. In relation to the above cases 26 dockets are before the Courts and 4 are under investigation.

A total of 22 case dockets not related to the Task Team mandate but linked with allocated political related cases are taken by the Task Team for parallel investigations. These two categories of cases are also allocated to the Task Team to ensure centralised investigation and prosecution.

In this regard we commend the efforts of the task team and we are confident that in the near future we will have more perpetrators of these heinous crimes behind bars.

At the conclusion of our mandate, as the IMC, we are intending to leave KwaZulu-Natal in peace and harmony for which many have sacrificed their lives for. Members of the media as the IMC we are quite satisfied with the progress that has been made thus far and we are further confident of successful convictions in near future.

I thank you.

Contact: Reneilwe Serero - +27714920073