Annexures tabled at the Madlanga Commission reveal KwaZulu-Natal’s Political Killings Task Team spent R235 million over three years yet achieving a mere 17% conviction rate, writes Jean Redpath.
The recent pause in proceedings at the Madlanga Commission gave some welcome respite from the avalanche of allegations, to consider some of the evidence tabled.
The annexures to National Commissioner Fannie Masemola’s testimony detailing the approved expenditure on the political killings task team (PKTT) show vast expenditure and questionable yields for it.
The first six months of the PKTT alone were costed at R49 million – excluding the salaries of the people concerned, who were drawn away from other tasks. The amounts were mostly for the members themselves.
PKTT costs
Meals: R4.6 million
Daily allowance: R3.1 million
Overtime: R16.4 million
Accommodation: R19.3 million
Informers: R3 million
Rewards: R2 million
Laundry: R500 400
This was organised by region, with each region getting R10 million’ worth of meals over time, etc, for 33 people each, working out on average to some R300 000 for each member of the PKTT – for only six months, over and above their salaries.
Where does the money come from? The only possible place in the SAPS budget is the mysterious and staggering R8.5 billion in the “other” personnel expenditure column.
This is more than the personnel budget for Crime Intelligence, and Protection and Security Services, combined. Nowhere is this clearly accounted for in the Budget Vote documents, nor in the Annual Reports of SAPS. While the work of other task teams is mentioned, the PKTT is not. Where is all this money going?
Furthermore, the composition of the task team is perplexing. Initially there were 139 members, of which only five were from the Detective Services and two from the Hawks. Yet there was a task team commander and five other commanders, as well as five offering operational and administrative support.
In addition, some 30 vehicles were taken away from police stations in the province and allocated to the PKTT. The documentation is explicit that the money was to be managed at “Provincial Office KwaZulu-Natal”.
What was the initial job of the PKTT? To investigate only 99 “politically-related” crimes recorded between January 2011 and May 2018, of which 67 were murders.
Not only must excellent results be expected from this kind of expenditure, but it cannot continue indefinitely without interrogation of its necessity in the light of other priorities: between 5 500 and 6 500 murders were recorded in the province in each year for the last two years. The PKTT share is a tiny fraction of murders.
Between July 2018 and June 2021 (three years), the amount allocated to the PKTT was R235 million, with R209 million actually spent (around R70 million per year – excluding salaries).
A performance report to June 2021 was provided. By that date, the PKTT had been allocated 231 “politically-related” cases as well as an additional 88 case dockets not related to the PKTT mandate but linked with the same suspects, making the total 319.
Arising from this, 251 suspects were arrested in relation to 161 cases over this time period. Of these, 45 (out of the 231 cases) plus eight (out of the 88 additional cases) had a conviction at the time of this report. In other words, each R4.4 million spent yielded a single conviction in three years.
Throughput (convictions/dockets) is 53/319, which is 17%. By way of comparison, data from 2019 shows that the murder convictions to reported murders ratio for South Africa overall in 2019/2020 was 13% – slightly worse than the PKTT. As many as eight of the PKTT’s suspects died.
Admittedly, the murder conviction to reported murder ratio for KwaZulu-Natal in that year was much worse than the national average rate: only 399 convictions compared to 4 859 reported murders were recorded in 2019/2020 – around 8%, or half the national rate. But could this partly be because of the redirection of the resources in the province to the PKTT?
It is noteworthy than in 2023/24, the Annual Report of the SAPS in its reporting on the Detective Service, remarks repeatedly in justification of the failure of the Detective Service to reach targets, that:
“The Detective Service capability of the SAPS has been under strain for several years, with little to no growth in resources. Emerging and priority crime threats often require the diversion of Detective Service resources to specialised task teams.”
While other task teams are explicitly discussed by name in the Annual Report, there is no mention of the PKTT, which would have made it difficult for Parliament to exercise any oversight over it in the normal way.
Furthermore, during the life of the PKTT, the number of murders in the province increased from around 4 395 in 2018/19 to 6 947 by 2022/23 – a breathtaking 58% increase, compared to the rest of the country, which “only” increased 24%. This suggests that prioritising the investigation of political killings did not seem to have a broader protective effect on ordinary citizens in the province.
After the PKTT performance report of 2021, a further R74 million was allocated for another year, and similar amounts in the following years.
One of the PKTT successes involved an investigation of the suspect who shot the victim in broad daylight in front of multiple witnesses. Why is it not possible for ordinary police station detectives – or even the Hawks – to solve a crime such as this?
It seems, on the face of it, that the SAPS, in this province in particular, is failing ordinary citizens. It is hoped the Commission will apply its mind to this broader picture.
- Jean Redpath is a senior researcher at the Dullah Omar Institute at the University of the Western Cape.
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