Ian Cameron calls for investigation into Mkhwanazi’s allegations

Parliament’s Police Portfolio Chairperson, Ian Cameron, has called for an ad hoc commission to be established to investigate allegations of criminality in police service.

This comes after allegations by the KwaZulu-Natal Police Commissioner Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi that Police Minister Senzo Mchunu is affiliated to persons linked to criminal activities.

Mkhwanazi says Mchunu gave an instruction that the task team into political killings in KwaZulu-Natal be disbanded after members of the syndicate were arrested last year.

He also accused some senior police officials of being involved in corruption. Cameron says a range of interventions should be implemented, like vetting and lifestyle audits as well as establishing an ad hoc committee.

“The first one would be to establish an ad hoc inquiry or commission with a clear timeline to urgently investigate the claims. And the dockets and processes regarding those dockets should be frozen. I think to leave them in the system would be massive risk, after what we heard yesterday,” says Cameron.

He says there is what he calls an integrity deficit in the security and policing services and that vetting and lifestyle audits need to be conducted by independent bodies.

“An external body (needs) to undertake lifestyle audits. Why do I say that? There are massive questions about vetting security clearance among seniors in the police. After what I have seen, I don’t have trust in authorities that they will be able to conduct those vetting exercises on their own,” he adds.