PRETORIA- National Police Commissioner, Fannie Masemola, says Police Minister, Senzo Mchunu's, alleged instruction to disband the KwaZulu-Natal political killings task team would have been an overreach.
Testifying before the Madlanga Commission in Pretoria, Masemola explained that while the minister may offer input on crime-fighting tactics, his authority has clear boundaries.
In other words, the Minister can issue out directives on areas they need to focus on.
This can span from prioritising cash-in-transit robberies to gangsterism, but the ‘how part’, which looks at the way the job will be carried out and the resources needed, will be the National Commissioner's role, Masemola explained.
'In the case of the Political Killings Task Team, it is a task team working at a lower level under a provincial commissioner. If the Minister found anything wrong with it, he could say it can be disbanded. But we would have to engage in the terms on the how and why.
"But to go further and disband and you go further to say now, now, now, not even tomorrow, I think this is a total encroachment into the mandate of the national commission in terms of the performance of my duty," Masemola said.
Pressed on whether the National Commissioner must obey a minister who overreaches into police operation, Masemola was clear: he would not follow unconstitutional or operational orders, even if that decision might harm his career.