Mchunu in hot water if allegations made at Madlanga commission found to be true: experts

Legal experts say the allegations made about suspended police minister Senzo Mchunu at the Madlanga commission are so serious that he could be charged with defeating the ends of justice as well as perjury.

The commission has heard that Mchunu interfered with investigations into municipal councillor murder cases, coerced a witness to lie to the commission and tried to implicate the crime intelligence boss in the killing of Sindiso Magaqa.

According to legal analyst Mpumelelo Zikalala, if the allegations are proven, Mchunu would be referred to law enforcement.

“The commission will make a recommendation to law enforcement to investigate, and if they investigate and the allegation is proven, the minister will be charged with defeating the ends of justice — and there is no minimum prescribed sentence, so it’s one of those that depend on the severity of the crime committed,” Zikalala said.

Abigail Ngobene, a legal practitioner, said forcing someone to depose a false statement amounts to perjury.

“If it could be proven that he tried or forced someone to depose a false affidavit, it would amount to perjury, which is a punishable offence,” she said.

One of the people who made damning allegations at the commission is “Witness E”. He told the commission how Mchunu tried to implicate crime intelligence head Lt-Gen Dumisani Khumalo and former police minister Bheki Cele in Magaqa’s murder case.

Magaqa, a former ANC Youth League secretary-general, was a councillor in the Umzimkhulu local municipality when he was shot dead in 2017.

Witness E said on December 7 2024, he received a call from Mchunu asking him about the Magaqa case and the role played by senior crime intelligence officials in Magaqa’s murder.

After he gave Mchunu the names of the implicated officials, Mchunu asked him if Khumalo was involved in the plot. He told Mchunu that Khumalo was not part of crime intelligence, and he was also not in KwaZulu-Natal at the time.

He said Mchunu then asked if Cele was involved, and he responded that Cele was not the minister at the time.

Previous witnesses told the inquiry the directive to disband the political killings task team (PKTT) in December 2024 was influenced by the raid on alleged “big five” cartel members by the Gauteng police’s counter-intelligence team with the help of the PKTT.

He asked why the PKTT was investigating the case, as he had instructed it to be ‘investigated by the station where the crime occurred’

—   Maj-Gen Anthony Gopaul, KZN acting deputy police commissioner

Witness E said Mchunu last month attempted to coerce him into submitting a false statement as his evidence to the commission.

“He said the paragraph must read as follows: ‘that from 2018, after the establishment of the PKTT, and from 2022, [Lt-]Gen Khumalo was head of crime intelligence, and to date [Lt-]Gen Khumalo has not done anything about the information that I gave him about the alleged involvement of crime intelligence members, though he is the head of intelligence’,” he said.

In support of this allegation, he played audio believed to be a telephonic interview in which Mchunu asks Witness E if he has written the affidavit.

Witness E said he didn’t prepare the statement as ordered by Mchunu, as it would be a lie.

He also said one of the suspects involved in Magaqa’s death was a police informer who used a firearm given to him by crime intelligence. The getaway car was bought with money from crime intelligence.

Magaqa’s death, said the witness, could have been prevented, as an informer told him about the plot to kill him two weeks before.

“The informer told me about the plot and that my superiors would be the ones to assist the killers to get away. I did everything in my power. I reported the information to prevent the murder, but they [his superiors] refused to act,” he said.

The commission also heard from KwaZulu-Natal acting deputy police commissioner Maj-Gen Anthony Gopaul that after ANC councillor Phendukani Mabhida was shot dead in February 2025, Mchunu questioned why the matter was being investigated by the PKTT.

“I received a call from the minister on February 5. The call was about what transpired in the murder of Mabhida,” said Gopaul.

“I briefed the minister. The minister told me I need to keep him abreast of the investigation. I told the minister I was not investigating the murder, as it was being investigated by the PKTT.

“He asked why the PKTT was investigating the case, as he had instructed it be ‘investigated by the station where the crime occurred’.”

He was asked not to detail the events of the murder to prevent trauma for the victim’s family.

Gopaul said the second interaction was when Mchunu asked about the docket of a case involving MK Party councillor Doeshie Govender, whom he alleged the community had complained about.

Gopaul said the reason the police had submitted to the minister’s demands was that he was their boss.

The commission is expected to resume its hearings on Tuesday.

Sowetan