MK Party heading to ConCourt to challenge appointment of interim police minister
The party also does not support the establishment of a Judicial Commission of Inquiry to investigate claims of corruption, infiltration and capture of the South African Police Service.
MK Party's parliamentary leader, John Hlophe (centre), and the party's chief whip, Colleen Makhubele (right), during a media briefing in Parliament, Cape Town on 15 July 2025. Picture: Lindsay Dentlinger/EWN
CAPE TOWN - The uMkhonto weSizwe (MK) Party said it was heading to the Constitutional Court to challenge a decision to appoint an interim police minister.
The party said that there was no provision in the Constitution for a minister to be placed on special leave, neither for two ministers to be appointed to the same portfolio at the same time.
Making the announcement, the MK Party's parliamentary leader, John Hlophe, said that he'd been given the green light to challenge President Cyril Ramaphosa’s Sunday announcement to suspend Police Minister Senzo Mchunu and use his constitutional prerogative to appoint a parliamentary outsider to lead the department in the interim.
The party also does not support the establishment of a commission of inquiry to investigate claims of corruption, infiltration and capture of the South African Police Service (SAPS).
The MK Party wants Ramaphosa to fire Mchunu, saying there was enough evidence to show he’d misled Parliament and the country on several occasions.
Hlophe said that the party had approached Parliament’s ethics committee to investigate Mchunu.
"We are dealing with a minister who has serious allegations, with a history of lying. I've openly called him a pathological liar. When it comes to lying, he excels."
Hlophe said that court papers were already being drafted to approach the country’s top court to challenge the appointment of a Firoz Cachalia to head the police ministry while Mchunu was on leave.
"The issues are of a serious nature. There is so much at stake. Time is not on our side. We can’t go to the high court and waste time."
The MK Party said that a commission of inquiry into the police was a waste of time and taxpayers’ money, saying that the police commissioner should act on the allegations made against senior officials who were reportedly stalling investigations.