Police Major General Petronella van Rooyen has told the Madlanga Commission in Pretoria that the authority to disband the KwaZulu -Natal Political Killings Task Team PKTT lies exclusively with National Police Commissioner, General Fannie Masemola . The hearing has been adjourned until Friday. Van Rooyen is the head of Governance, Legislation and Policy at the Legal Services Division at the South African Police Service. She has told the commission that Police Minister Senzo Mchunu had no legislative authority to disband the PKTT especially in the manner that he did.
The minister of police is not a technocrat. His or her role is to advance the development of legislation and national police policy particularly in terms of key issues that require executive attention. Therefore, a minister is empowered to select which areas warrant specialized intervention and attention such as crash in transits, illegal mining, gangsterism, etc. However, the minister cannot prescribe at the national level.
She added that suspended Deputy National Police Commissioner for Crime Detection General Shadrack Sibiya also had no legislative authority to carry out an order of disbanding the PKTT.
She says Sibiya had no power to carry out Police Minister Senzo Mchunus directive.