Suspension of South Africa’s Police Minister Linked to Criminal Gangs “step in the right direction”: Cardinal

Johannesburg, 14 July, 2025 / 10:01 PM

The leadership of the Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Conference (SACBC) has lauded President Cyril Ramaphosa for suspending the country’s Police Minister accused for  having links with criminal gangs.

In an interview with the SACBC Communication Office, SACBC President, Stephen Cardinal Brislin, welcomed President Ramaphosa’s decisive action days after Catholic Bishops in Southern Africa had denounced the allegations as “deeply unsettling”.

“We must express our deep gratitude to the President. There is no proof yet regarding the allegations but placing the Minister on leave and launching a judicial inquiry are steps in the right direction,” Cardinal Brislin is quoted as saying in a Monday, July 14 report following the interview.

Referring to the reported “explosive allegations” that South Africa’s KwaZulu-Natal police boss, Lt. Gen. Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi, made at a July 6 press Conference, the Cardinal said, “Most importantly, the results of this investigation must be made public.”

In the July 6 press conference, Gen. Mkhwanazi reportedly accused Police Minister Senzo Mchunu and Deputy National Commissioner, Shadrack Sibiya, of colluding with criminal gangs in, among other crimes, obstructing investigations of the Political Killings Task Team into a powerful crime syndicate in South Africa’s Gauteng Province.

Gen. Mkhwanazi explained that the two government officials disbanded the task team in December 2024 and hijacked key case dockets tied to politically motivated killings.

At the July 6 press briefing, Gen. Mkhwanazi reportedly presented WhatsApp conversations allegedly between businessman Vusimuzi “Cat” Matlala (an alleged beneficiary of a R360 million police contract later cancelled in May) and an associate of Minister Senzo Mchunu. The chat messages purportedly showed financial support for Minister Senzo Mchunu’s political activities and coordination to dissolve the task team.

According to another July 7 report, Gen. Mkhwanazi alleged that senior security officials alongside Senzo Mchunu and Shadrack Sibiya were actively involved in the disruption of investigations by transferring case dockets, removing firearms evidence, and arresting task team members through the Investigating Directorate Against Corruption to derail the inquiry.

Gen. Mkhwanazi warned of a criminal network’s infiltration into multiple state organs – including law enforcement, judiciary, prosecutors, and correctional services – and went on to assert that drug cartels and business elites have “taken control” of these State institutions.

In the July 14 interview with the SACBC communication office, Cardinal Brislin reportedly emphasized the Church’s prophetic role in society, saying that, even though the Church does not presume guilt, it must advocate for ethical leadership and call society back to a moral compass.

“Corruption is destroying our society,” the President of SACBC said, warning that South Africa cannot afford to follow the path of nations where organized crime, law enforcement, and political power are deeply intertwined.