Suspended SAPS deputy national commissioner, Lt-Gen Shadrack Sibiya, has admitted under oath that the Political Killings Task Team (PKTT) was disbanded without any review of its work and without a written order formally shutting it down.
His admission before the Madlanga Commission on Thursday has intensified scrutiny over the abrupt collapse of a unit tasked with investigating politically motivated assassinations.
Testifying in Pretoria, Sibiya failed to produce any document explicitly instructing that the PKTT be disestablished.
Pressed by commission chairperson Mbuyiseli Madlanga to point to a clear directive, Sibiya conceded there was none.
“All that we want is for you to show us a decision that says PKTT you are now being disestablished,” Madlanga told him.
Sibiya’s response was blunt. “These two documents that I am sitting with… nowhere is it written that PKTT must be disbanded.”
He further admitted that no formal assessment of the unit’s performance was conducted before it was dissolved.
“There was no review,” he said during cross-examination.
The disbandment followed a December 31, 2024 directive from then police minister Senzo Mchunu ordering the team’s “immediate disbandment,” stating it no longer added value to policing.
The instruction came two months after Mchunu met police management to propose a “review of certain capabilities” of task teams he believed duplicated existing structures — including the PKTT.
But Sibiya confirmed that the promised review never happened.
He has insisted that he acted on instructions from national police commissioner Fannie Masemola.
Yet Masemola previously testified he was “surprised” by the minister’s directive and said he first learned of the disbandment letter through social media.
That contradiction has sharpened questions about who truly drove the decision and why.
Sibiya told the commission he was equally “surprised” when Masemola claimed ignorance of the letter.
He argued there had been prior discussions about phasing out task teams to strengthen permanent units, but he produced no documentary proof of a formal resolution to dissolve the PKTT.
The controversy deepened after KZN police commissioner Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi alleged the unit’s closure was abrupt, unconsulted and designed to shield criminal syndicates with links to senior police officials and politicians.
Mkhwanazi claimed the decision was not based on performance but external influence.
Sibiya, facing allegations of improper conduct and attempting to influence the disbandment, rejected suggestions of ulterior motives. He maintained that the restructuring aimed to eliminate duplication.