{"id":92148,"date":"2025-10-28T18:49:31","date_gmt":"2025-10-28T18:49:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/deputy-minister-blindsided-by-task-team-disbandment"},"modified":"2025-10-28T19:17:22","modified_gmt":"2025-10-28T19:17:22","slug":"deputy-minister-blindsided-by-task-team-disbandment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/deputy-minister-blindsided-by-task-team-disbandment","title":{"rendered":"Deputy Minister Blindsided by Task Team Disbandment"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600\"><strong>Africa-Press &#8211; South-Africa. <\/strong><\/span>The Deputy Minister of Police, Cassel Mathale, testified to a parliamentary ad hoc committee that he was caught completely off-guard by Minister Senzo Mchunu&#8217;s directive to disband the Political Killings Task Team (PKTT).<\/p>\n<p>Giving evidence on the 13th day of the parliamentary hearings into police corruption, Mathale told evidence leader Norman Arendse that he first learned of the directive via social media.<\/p>\n<p>He confirmed that Minister Mchunu only called him in early January to inform him of the decision, reassuring him that he had personally drafted the letter.<\/p>\n<p>The Deputy Minister expressed his surprise at the decision, stating he &#8220;didn&#8217;t understand what could have motivated him [Mchunu] to pen such a letter in the manner that he did&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>Mathale alsotold the committee that he found the Minister&#8217;s letter to be &#8220;strongly-worded.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>When questioned about his knowledge of the move, Mathale stated that he was unsure if Mchunu had consulted with President Cyril Ramaphosa before issuing the directive to dismantle the team.<\/p>\n<p>Mathale insisted that the task team\u2019s effectiveness was never in question, affirming that it had done &#8220;excellent work.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The Deputy Minister&#8217;s testimony focused on his knowledge of the disbanding of the task team and whether proper protocol was followed.<\/p>\n<p><b>PKTT WAS RAMAPHOSA&#8217;S PROJECT &#8211; MATHALE<\/b><\/p>\n<p>Mathale said the political killings task team was President Cyril Ramphosa\u2019s project because he established it.<\/p>\n<p>He added that he was surprised to learn on social media of Mchunu\u2019s directive to disband the task team last December.<\/p>\n<p>Mathale said he\u2019s unsure if Mchunu informed Ramaphosa about his decision to disband the task team, which he says was doing \u201cexcellent work\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>He said Mkhwanazi was central to the team\u2019s operations by virtue of being the provincial commissioner.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt happens to be in KZN but I can say it\u2019s the president\u2019s project because the president initiated a process that led to the formation of this team. And obviously the team is established in a province.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>For More News And Analysis About <span style=\"color: #ff6600\">South-Africa<\/span> Follow <span style=\"color: #ff6600\">Africa-Press<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Africa-Press &#8211; South-Africa. The Deputy Minister of Police, Cassel Mathale, testified to a parliamentary ad hoc committee that he was caught completely off-guard by Minister Senzo Mchunu&#8217;s directive to disband the Political Killings Task Team (PKTT). Giving evidence on the 13th day of the parliamentary hearings into police corruption, Mathale told evidence leader Norman Arendse [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":92146,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,7,12],"tags":[275],"class_list":["post-92148","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-head-lines","category-policy","tag-south-africa-2"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.1 (Yoast SEO v27.0) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Deputy Minister Blindsided by Task Team Disbandment - South Africa<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The Deputy Minister of Police, Cassel Mathale, testified to a parliamentary ad hoc committee that he was caught complete ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/deputy-minister-blindsided-by-task-team-disbandment\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Deputy Minister Blindsided by Task Team Disbandment\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Deputy Minister of Police, Cassel Mathale, testified to a parliamentary ad hoc committee that he was caught complete ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/deputy-minister-blindsided-by-task-team-disbandment\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"South Africa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-10-28T18:49:31+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-10-28T19:17:22+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2025\/10\/sm_1761666372.385294.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"630\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/deputy-minister-blindsided-by-task-team-disbandment#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/deputy-minister-blindsided-by-task-team-disbandment\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Deputy Minister Blindsided by Task Team Disbandment\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-10-28T18:49:31+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-10-28T19:17:22+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/deputy-minister-blindsided-by-task-team-disbandment\"},\"wordCount\":350,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/deputy-minister-blindsided-by-task-team-disbandment#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2025\/10\/sm_1761666372.385294.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"South-Africa\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"head lines\",\"policy\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/deputy-minister-blindsided-by-task-team-disbandment#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/deputy-minister-blindsided-by-task-team-disbandment\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/deputy-minister-blindsided-by-task-team-disbandment\",\"name\":\"Deputy Minister Blindsided by Task Team Disbandment - South Africa\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/deputy-minister-blindsided-by-task-team-disbandment#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/deputy-minister-blindsided-by-task-team-disbandment#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2025\/10\/sm_1761666372.385294.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-10-28T18:49:31+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-10-28T19:17:22+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"description\":\"The Deputy Minister of Police, Cassel Mathale, testified to a parliamentary ad hoc committee that he was caught complete ...\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/deputy-minister-blindsided-by-task-team-disbandment#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/deputy-minister-blindsided-by-task-team-disbandment\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/deputy-minister-blindsided-by-task-team-disbandment#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2025\/10\/sm_1761666372.385294.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2025\/10\/sm_1761666372.385294.jpg\",\"width\":1200,\"height\":630,\"caption\":\"Deputy Minister Blindsided by Task Team Disbandment\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/deputy-minister-blindsided-by-task-team-disbandment#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Deputy Minister Blindsided by Task Team Disbandment\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/\",\"name\":\"South Africa\",\"description\":\"Just another Africa News Agency Sites site\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\",\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7417380fa9e23b5c57fdbfdaf3fdf92ee478f759a084addda5faa3732853e74a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7417380fa9e23b5c57fdbfdaf3fdf92ee478f759a084addda5faa3732853e74a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"cfeditoren\"}}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Deputy Minister Blindsided by Task Team Disbandment - South Africa","description":"The Deputy Minister of Police, Cassel Mathale, testified to a parliamentary ad hoc committee that he was caught complete ...","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/deputy-minister-blindsided-by-task-team-disbandment","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Deputy Minister Blindsided by Task Team Disbandment","og_description":"The Deputy Minister of Police, Cassel Mathale, testified to a parliamentary ad hoc committee that he was caught complete ...","og_url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/deputy-minister-blindsided-by-task-team-disbandment","og_site_name":"South Africa","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa","article_published_time":"2025-10-28T18:49:31+00:00","article_modified_time":"2025-10-28T19:17:22+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1200,"height":630,"url":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2025\/10\/sm_1761666372.385294.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"cfeditoren","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"cfeditoren","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/deputy-minister-blindsided-by-task-team-disbandment#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/deputy-minister-blindsided-by-task-team-disbandment"},"author":{"name":"cfeditoren","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb"},"headline":"Deputy Minister Blindsided by Task Team Disbandment","datePublished":"2025-10-28T18:49:31+00:00","dateModified":"2025-10-28T19:17:22+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/deputy-minister-blindsided-by-task-team-disbandment"},"wordCount":350,"commentCount":0,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/deputy-minister-blindsided-by-task-team-disbandment#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2025\/10\/sm_1761666372.385294.jpg","keywords":["South-Africa"],"articleSection":["all news","head lines","policy"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/deputy-minister-blindsided-by-task-team-disbandment#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/deputy-minister-blindsided-by-task-team-disbandment","url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/deputy-minister-blindsided-by-task-team-disbandment","name":"Deputy Minister Blindsided by Task Team Disbandment - South Africa","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/deputy-minister-blindsided-by-task-team-disbandment#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/deputy-minister-blindsided-by-task-team-disbandment#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2025\/10\/sm_1761666372.385294.jpg","datePublished":"2025-10-28T18:49:31+00:00","dateModified":"2025-10-28T19:17:22+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb"},"description":"The Deputy Minister of Police, Cassel Mathale, testified to a parliamentary ad hoc committee that he was caught complete ...","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/deputy-minister-blindsided-by-task-team-disbandment#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/deputy-minister-blindsided-by-task-team-disbandment"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/deputy-minister-blindsided-by-task-team-disbandment#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2025\/10\/sm_1761666372.385294.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2025\/10\/sm_1761666372.385294.jpg","width":1200,"height":630,"caption":"Deputy Minister Blindsided by Task Team Disbandment"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/deputy-minister-blindsided-by-task-team-disbandment#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Deputy Minister Blindsided by Task Team Disbandment"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/","name":"South Africa","description":"Just another Africa News Agency Sites site","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb","name":"cfeditoren","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7417380fa9e23b5c57fdbfdaf3fdf92ee478f759a084addda5faa3732853e74a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7417380fa9e23b5c57fdbfdaf3fdf92ee478f759a084addda5faa3732853e74a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"cfeditoren"}}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92148","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/84"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=92148"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92148\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/92146"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=92148"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=92148"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=92148"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}