Johannesburg, 14 July, 2025 / 10:01 pm (ACI Africa).
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.
