Fight for control of Crime Intelligence at heart of internal battle within SAPS - crime expert

As eyebrow-raising details are shared before the ongoing Madlanga Commission of Inquiry, crime expert Chad Thomas believes that at the heart of an internal battle within the police service is the fight for control of Crime Intelligence. 

Thomas has been following the commission’s proceedings in Pretoria and has accused suspended Police Minister Senzo Mchunu of freezing vacancies within Crime Intelligence as part of an ongoing battle for control of the unit.

He said this included controlling hundreds of millions attached to the secret service account, otherwise known as the slush fund. 

Mchunu’s directive was contained in a letter to national police minister, Fannie Masemola, last year, which also included an instruction to disband the KwaZulu-Natal political killings task team.

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During her testimony before the Madlanga Commission on Thursday, head of SAPS' legal division, Major-General Petronella van Rooyen said the decision by Mchunu to halt the filling of all vacancies within Crime Intelligence amounted to executive overreach. 

"There is, however, no provision within the SAPS Act or employment regulations that authorises the minister to blanketly halt the filling of posts in a particular division of the service or the service as a whole."

Thomas said that due to the nature of its functions, Crime Intelligence has access to enormous amounts of money, which need to be disguised.

"Whoever controls that slush fund has the potential to control a lot of funding that could be used for illicit purposes."

Crime Intelligence head, Dumisani Khumalo, a close ally of KZN police commissioner, Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi, remains embroiled in a scandal related to the irregular appointment of an official into a highly specialised post within the unit.