Hearing record
Day 40
Acting Deputy National Police Commissioner for Crime Detection, Lieutenant-General Hilda Sinthumule, testified on 28 November 2025, branding the decision to disband the Political Killings Task Team 'business unusual' and telling the commission the move plunged the police service into chaos.
The day in brief
What you need to know
- Lt-Gen Hilda Sinthumule, acting deputy national commissioner for crime detection, told the commission the PKTT's disbandment did not follow correct procedure.
- She called the decision 'business unusual' and described it as suspiciously calculated.
- Sinthumule said the disbandment plunged the police service into chaos and left victims of violent crime in the lurch.
- The commission heard that factional disputes over the disbandment stalled investigations into 121 politically related killings.
- She described clear factional divides within the police top brass and a muddled handover of dockets.
- Conflicting directives from Minister Senzo Mchunu, National Commissioner Fannie Masemola and suspended deputy national commissioner Gen Shadrack Sibiya were central to the confusion she outlined.
- All persons referenced are presumed innocent unless and until convicted by a competent court.
Full coverage
The day, in depth
'Business unusual'
News24 and EWN reported that Sinthumule slammed the disbandment of the PKTT as irrational and calculated, saying it did not follow the correct procedures. She characterised the move as business unusual and warned that it had thrown the police service into disarray, leaving victims of politically motivated violence without the specialised team meant to pursue their cases.
121 stalled cases and a muddled handover
According to EWN, the commission heard that factional feuds over the disbandment stalled probes into 121 politically related killings. A large part of Sinthumule's evidence dealt with the confused transfer of dockets and conflicting instructions flowing from Minister Senzo Mchunu, National Commissioner Fannie Masemola and suspended deputy national commissioner General Shadrack Sibiya, which she said deepened the chaos.
Our analysis
The bottom line
Sinthumule's evidence matters because of who she is: an acting deputy national commissioner speaking from inside the command structure, not a whistleblower on the margins. When a serving senior officer calls the disbandment 'business unusual' and ties it to 121 stalled political-killing probes, she is putting an institutional cost on a decision that has otherwise been debated in terms of authority and turf.
The throughline she draws, from disbandment to docket confusion to conflicting directives at the very top, is the same fault line the commission has been mapping for weeks. Her account is consistent with the broader picture other witnesses have sketched, though it remains her characterisation and the officials she names are entitled to answer it.
For readers, the sharpest takeaway is human rather than procedural: her point that victims were left in the lurch reframes an organogram dispute as a question of who was left without investigators when they needed them. That is the stake the commission ultimately has to weigh.
Analysis is the archive’s own comment on the public proceedings, grounded in the record above. It weighs the evidence and the process; questions of individual guilt are for the courts and the commission to decide. Everyone named is presumed innocent.
In the room & on the record
Counsel, the panel and sources
On the panel
- Justice Mbuyiseli Madlanga (chairperson)
Sources
- News24 - 'Irrational, calculated': Senior cop slams Mchunu for disbanding PKTT (28 Nov 2025) ↗
- EWN - Acting SAPS deputy Senthumule labels decision to disband PKTT as 'business unusual' (28 Nov 2025) ↗
- EWN - Factional disputes over PKTT disbandment stalled probes into 121 political killings (28 Nov 2025) ↗