TOP QUOTES | Mkhwanazi's first day at Madlanga Commission

KwaZulu-Natal Police Commissioner Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi testified at the Madlanga Commission of Inquiry in Pretoria on Wednesday as the first witness. Here are the highlights of his testimony so far.

1. "I want to demonstrate that the criminal justice system has been subject to a continuous threat, as well as sabotage, which has been with us over an extended period to a point where we believe it is at risk of a total collapse if nothing is done. Therefore, urgent and effective interventions are required in order to avert this outcome. I believe this commission will stand to play a very important role in order to help us to prevent this total collapse of the justice system in our country.

2. "To me, it was a wrong conclusion that the minister has reached, which is why it became a matter of concern. The minister's conclusion of saying that the team does not add any value in policing in South Africa was misplaced. It is my belief that perhaps, as I had said in the public in the very same month of January, that someone influenced the Minister to do this."

3. "I am aware of the evidence that was extracted as the team and how they were investigating, which made me reach the conclusion that indeed this is what made someone to influence a minister to close it (the task team)."

4. "When I made this address before the South Africans, it was because I wanted to inform the public about the level of challenges that we're experiencing as a South African Police Service in relation to the work we do as a police, which involve criminality and the political interference on the work that we do, which will also include corruption within the value chain of the justice system, which we are Part of as law enforcement."

5. "The establishment of the task team within the South African police service is a normal operational response that we employ in order to address a specific issue or challenge that you experience in the country. And these task teams are constituted at the provincial level by the discretion of the provincial Commissioner, and some of them are initiated in a national level by the discretion and approval of the national Commissioner. The political killings task team is one of many of such projects-based interventions that we employed in the South African Police Service."

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