Deputy police minister Polly Boshielo says she was disappointed to find out that suspended police minister Senzo Mchunu was disbanding the political killings task team (PKTT) without consulting his two deputies first.
Boshielo told parliament’s ad hoc committee on Tuesday that she first learnt of the letter disbanding the PKTT on social media and initially thought it was a fake.
Mchunu then contacted her in early January to tell her the letter was legitimate and that he had written it.
“I thanked him for clarifying the status of the letter,” she said.
The gap created by the lack of reasonable and adequate consultation gave the opportunity for this controversy to erupt.
— Polly Boshielo, deputy police minister
Asked by evidence leader advocate Norman Arendse SC what her reaction was, Bosheilo said: “I saw it on social media, and I just thought it was a fake letter — until the minister called me and said it is not fake; he wrote the letter.
“In terms of how I felt, I was a little bit disappointed because I thought we [Mchunu and I] were working together, and before he could [issue] the letter, I thought he could have, as deputy ministers, maybe discussed it with us [her and deputy police minister Cassel Mathale]. But maybe, as the executive authority, he felt that he didn’t want to discuss it with me. But I was disappointed.”
In her witness statement, Boshielo said she believes the letter could have been handled differently because of its sensitivity.
“Consultation with relevant stakeholders could have preceded the writing of the letter.
“The gap created by the lack of reasonable and adequate consultation gave the opportunity for this controversy to erupt.”
Last week, Mathale also said that when he saw the letter on social media, he thought it was fake.
When he was asked whether it was appropriate to learn about such a directive in that manner, Mathale said: “That is not the right way. We have been interacting all along about everything that has to do with policing, but this specific one is how we learnt about it.”
The committee is investigating allegations of criminality, political interference and corruption in the criminal justice system.
Proceedings continue.
Sowetan