Timing of PKTT disbandment made no sense - Cachalia

Acting Police Minister Firoz Cachalia said that the disbanding of the political killings task team (PKTT) made no sense, especially with the local government elections on the horizon.

He said the problem goes deeper than just the killing of politicians and said he was gravely concerned by the assassinations of whistleblowers.

Cachalia said the problem was also more widespread and was not just localised to one province.

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Cachalia was responding to questions during Parliament’s ad hoc committee investigating police corruption.

The acting minister said that the timing of the disbandment of the PKTT made no sense, considering the high levels of organised crime.

He said there had been a number of whistleblowers who had been murdered over the years and their killings pointed towards deepeningcorruption.

"I couldn’t understand exactly what the reasons were for the disbandment of the task team. It seems to me, the problem of political killings was an ongoing one and in the run-up to the local government elections, was likely to deepen and become even worse."

He said that a national solution was required, especially around the protection of whistleblowers.

"We need, on a national basis, to respond to this problem of the involvement of cartels infiltrating our institutions and are emboldened to assassinate people with no consequences."

Cachalia told the committee that cartels were now corrupting systems of procurement in the health sector and this needed to be addressed.

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