TOP QUOTES | ‘Mchunu’s order to disband PKTT was beyond his authority’ – SAPS Legal Division

Head of SAPS’ Legal Division, Major-General Petronella van Rooyen, testified on Thursday before the Madlanga Commission of Inquiry at the Brigitte Mabandla Justice College in Pretoria as the third witness. Her testimony has now concluded and the Commission will hear from its new witness on Friday.

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Here are some quotes from her testimony:

"Section 199, six of the Constitution says no member of a security services may comply with a manifestly illegal order, so the fact that it came from the minister, and it didn't fall within the purview of a minister. To give that order is already problematic. The correct approach would have been to report it to the national commissioner and to say, I've received this order from the minister, and I'm reporting it to you to give direction on how to deal with the matter."

Mchunu's instruction to Masemola to disband KZN PKTT not appropriate, Madlanga Commission told

"Let's say General Sibiya is responsible for investigations. As the Deputy National Commissioner, if he requires the assistance of a provincial Commissioner, he can call the provincial commissioner and say, I need your assistance on this or these dockets that we need from head office side for this purpose or whatever. So there will be consultation. But when it comes to the reporting and the performance as well, they report directly to the national Commissioner."

Madlanga Commission hears Sibiya had no authority to remove dockets from KZN PKTT

"The longer the dockets remain unattended, the more difficult it becomes to investigate that cases properly. Evidence get lost, witnesses forget with time, and therefore the investigation, any investigation, will be detrimentally affected if it is stored somewhere and it doesn't receive attention in the furtherance of the investigation. Based on the legislative excuses detailed above, I am of a view that the decision to disband the PKTT as a task team lay within the exclusive authority of a national Commissioner and that the minister did not have the legislative authority to disband the PKTT, let alone the manner in which he did."

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"It can never be appropriate for a minister to instruct the National Commissioner not only to disband the PKTT, but also to say that the disbandment must be done immediately. That constitutes not only an usurping of powers of a national Commissioner, but also undermines the constitutional objects of the Saps, as set out in Section 2053, especially in respect of ongoing criminal investigations and the potential risk that further crimes may be committed."