Mkhwanazi questions Mchunu's role in sealing Ipid's Phala Phala report

KWAZULU-Natal Police Commissioner Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi has raised concerns about Police Minister Senzu Mchunu’s involvement in classifying as 'top secret' the Independent Police Investigative Directorate’s (Ipid) report on President Cyril Ramaphosa’s Phala Phala farm scandal. 

Mchunu, a Ramaphosa ally, had defended his decision, saying part of classifying the report was to protect witnesses who were involved in the investigation. He also maintained that no political pressure was being exerted on him to conceal the report from the public.

The report, which was completed by Ipid in October 2023, allegedly contains information about police behavior during the Phala Phala farm scandal involving Ramaphosa.

The charges included defeating the ends of justice, kidnapping of suspects, interrogation on his property and bribery.

In a complaint issued in June 2022, ATM president Vuyo Zungula had said that top brass in the Crime Intelligence Division were tasked with the back-channel tracing of the loot and those who stole the US dollars concealed in couches on Ramaphosa’s farm. 

Speaking on the Ipid report on Wednesday, Mkhwanazi said: “When you hear a Minister of Police says I have a report from IPID that is classified, you need to ask yourself a question - you are not an intelligence structure (IPID) and yet you classified a report you don’t want to release.”

He questioned what the IPID report was doing with the minister and why the document was classified.

“These are things that need to be checked because it is where the system of government fails. You worked to create legislation to try to protect yourselves and the citizens, but if it is manipulated... that the minister can just decide I am classifying this and I am not releasing it to the public, perhaps, does the minister have security clearance and how do you classify something if you are not vetted?”

Cape Times