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Ramaphosa suspends South Africa’s police minister
South Africa's Police Minister Senzo Mchunu (centre) visits an abandoned gold mine where miners are rescued from below ground, in Stilfontein, South Africa, January 14, 2025

SOUTH AFRICAN President Cyril Ramaphosa has suspended Police Minister Senzo Mchunu and announced an investigation into allegations that he has been colluding with criminal syndicates.

This follows allegations by a top police official in KwaZulu-Natal province, General Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi, that Mr Mchunu and deputy police commissioner Shadrack Sibiya had interfered with sensitive investigations.

The president said on Sunday that the probe would be headed by a judge.

“The commission will investigate the role of current or former senior officials in certain institutions who may have aided or abetted the alleged criminal activity, failed to act on credible intelligence or internal warnings or benefited financially or politically from a syndicate’s operations,” Mr Ramaphosa said during a televised address.

He also announced Firoz Cachalia as the acting minister of police.

During a press briefing on July 6, Mr Mkhwanazi also alleged that Mr Mchunu and Mr Sibiya had disbanded a crucial crime unit tasked with investigating repeated politically motivated murders in the province following the revelation that crime syndicates were behind the killings.

He alleged that an investigation by the unit had shown that some “politicians, law enforcement, SAPS [South African Police Service], metro police and correctional services, prosecutors [and] judiciary” were being “controlled by drug cartels and as well as businesspeople.”

The investigation would include some of the country’s crime and justice agencies, including the National Prosecuting Authority and the State Security Agency, Mr Ramaphosa said on Sunday.

Most opposition parties criticised him for not sacking Mr Mchunu rather than placing him on a leave of absence.

Nhlamulo Ndhlela, spokesman of the official opposition uMkhonto weSizwe (MK) Party, said: “This was an opportunity to take South Africans into confidence and to deal with these issues decisively. Instead, he calls for a commission of inquiry and expects South Africans to be patient when people are dying on a daily basis.”

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