KwaZulu-Natal Police Commissioner Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi has alleged that the Presidency interfered in policing operations linked to mining giant Richards Bay Minerals (RBM).
Mkhwanazi made the claim while testifying before the Madlanga Commission of Inquiry, where he detailed the challenges surrounding security threats at RBM.
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Executives Targeted Amid RBM Violence
According to Mkhwanazi, RBM executives faced a string of threats, including the assassination of the company’s general manager, Nico Swart, in 2021.
He revealed that he had deployed a team of detectives to investigate the cases. However, after a year without significant breakthroughs, the detectives were recalled to the provincial head office in Durban as part of cost-cutting measures.
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Police Commissioner Says Presidency Ordered Detectives Back
Mkhwanazi told the inquiry that soon after pulling the detectives back, he received a call from National Police Commissioner Fannie Masemola.
“A call that I received from my boss, the national commissioner, who said to me, ‘But I hear that you deployed people to Richards Bay, and you withdrew them’. I said, ‘Yes, I deployed them there for a mission; they didn’t achieve their mission a year later.
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“I brought them back and they are still carrying those investigations, but from my office’. Then he [Masemola] said, ‘No, I received a complaint from the Presidency. You must send those people back there’.”
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