Wednesday, 26 March 2025

The Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) strongly condemns the malicious and coordinated attacks against KwaZulu-Natal Provincial Police Commissioner, Lieutenant-General Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi. The sudden concerns raised by the Independent Police Investigative Directorate (IPID) over the number of suspects killed in KZN are nothing more than a diversionary tactic designed to discredit a man who is fearlessly fighting crime in one of South Africa’s most violent provinces. This is a direct attack on a law enforcement leader who has made significant strides in dismantling criminal networks that have long operated with impunity.

KwaZulu-Natal has become a battleground where powerful political figures, corrupt businessmen, and organised crime syndicates thrive in an ecosystem of drugs, money laundering, and racketeering. These criminals use cheap hitmen, some even hired from within prison, to execute targeted killings, ensuring that their crimes remain untraceable. General Mkhwanazi’s efforts to clean up the province have not only exposed these illicit dealings but have also sent shockwaves through their ranks. The attempt to paint his leadership as problematic simply because he is taking aggressive action against crime is a desperate ploy to weaken the fight against lawlessness.

The statistics do indeed show that KwaZulu-Natal accounts for 25% of police-related fatalities in the country, with 166 deaths recorded in the past year. However, while IPID has raised concerns about the possibility of officers bypassing the criminal justice system, there is little acknowledgement of the fact that KZN is home to some of the most violent crime hotspots in the country. Inanda and Umlazi rank among the top 10 cities for murder rates, with readily available iinkabi for every price,  daily reports of killings linked to gang violence, political assassinations, and drug-related executions. To ignore these realities and instead target the very individuals taking a stand against crime is an insult to the people of KZN, who continue to live in fear due to rampant violence.

Furthermore, the baseless allegations against Mkhwanazi regarding the arrest of former Westville Maximum Prison head, Nelly Ndlovu, on suspicion of running a drug cartel within the correctional facility, are nothing more than an attempt to smear his name. It is no secret that drug lords have infiltrated South Africa’s prison system, using officials and incarcerated criminals to maintain their operations. Mkhwanazi’s crackdown on these networks has clearly rattled those benefiting from this system of corruption, leading to a deliberate campaign to remove him from his position.

It is telling that Police Minister Senzo Mchunu’s name has been linked to the complaint of interference against Mkhwanazi, despite attempts to backtrack on this claim. Media reports exposed a letter dated 12 March 2025, signed by IPID’s acting national head of investigations, which explicitly stated that the complaint was lodged by the Minister. Yet, in a predictable display of political manoeuvring, IPID has since claimed that the complaint actually came from an “anonymous source.” The fact that Mchunu’s office failed to outright deny the allegations when initially confronted, only to later issue a statement distancing him from the complaint, raises serious suspicions about whether he is truly uninvolved.

Mkhwanazi himself has confirmed that a close associate of Mchunu warned him about an internal effort to discredit him. This revelation, combined with IPID’s sudden reversal on the origin of the complaint, points to a well-organised effort to weaken his authority. This is a textbook example of how corrupt politicians protect criminal interests by eliminating those who threaten their power structures.

The reality is that South Africa’s political elite have never been truly committed to fighting crime, especially when it begins to expose their own entanglement with illicit dealings. Law enforcement has long been treated as a toothless entity, manipulated to serve the interests of the powerful rather than protect ordinary citizens. Now that Mkhwanazi has refused to play by these rules and is making real progress in dismantling criminal operations, those who benefit from chaos are moving swiftly to neutralise him.

The EFF stands firmly in support of Lieutenant-General Mkhwanazi and his mission to root out crime in KwaZulu-Natal. To question why more criminals are dying in KZN is to ignore the root causes of crime in the province. The high number of police-related fatalities is not due to recklessness or extrajudicial killings, it is a reflection of the extreme level of crime and the fierce resistance police face when confronting criminals. It is therefore easy to judge these statistics when one is not used to effective policing, something the entire country of South Africa has been unfamiliar with until now.

The people of KwaZulu-Natal, and the rest of the country, deserve a police force that prioritises justice over political games. We, therefore, demand transparency in the investigation against Mkhwanazi and call for full disclosure of who is behind these unfounded allegations. The EFF will continue to monitor the situation and take all necessary steps to ensure that those who seek to derail the fight against crime are exposed and held accountable.

ISSUED BY THE ECONOMIC FREEDOM FIGHTERS

Leigh-Ann Mathys (National Spokesperson) 082 304 7572

Thato Lebyane (Media Enquiries) 078 304 7572