Parliament ad hoc committee probing Mkhwanazi&#x2019s allegations gets another deadline extension

Lieutenant-General Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi at the parliamentary ad hoc committee.

Storm Simpson/News24

The National Assembly has extended the ad hoc committee’s deadline to March 2024,marking the fourth extension since its creation.The committee investigates claims of underworld influence in the justice system,raised by Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi.The committee will conclude its hearing by listening to Mkhwanazi and national commissioner Fannie Masemola before deliberating on its report. The ad hoc committee investigating KwaZulu-Natal provincial police commissioner Nhlanhla Mkwanazi’s allegations now has until the end of March to complete its work.

In a brief,virtual sitting on Tuesday,the National Assembly unanimously extended the committee’s deadline for a third time.

The National Assembly established the committee in the wake of Mkhwanazi’s allegations that the underworld had extended its tentacles into the criminal justice system. At that time,the committee’s deadline was ambitiously set for the end of October 2025. This was extended until 28 November,and then again until 20 February 2026.

The committee has already heard from a slew of witnesses,starting with Mkhwanazi.

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National police commissioner Fannie Masemola and Senzo Mchunu,who is on “special leave” as police minister,have appeared before the committee,which also visited criminal Vusimusi “Cat” Matlala in Kgosi Mampuru prison,where he was awaiting trial on 25 charges,11 of which are for attempted murder,stemming from three separate shooting incidents between August 2022 and January 2024.

Most recently,the committee heard from controversial forensic investigator Paul O’Sullivan. The committee will not conduct hearings this week as the National Assembly will be preoccupied with debates on the State of the Nation Address.

At its most recent meeting,the committee still had to secure the attendance of information peddler Brown Mogotsi,a central figure in many of the allegations before the committee,but the evidence leaders were hopeful. The committee will conclude its hearings with the reappearance of Mkhwanazi and Masemola.

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Thereafter,it will deliberate on the report it will table to the National Assembly.