South African President suspends police minister and launches probe into alleged hyperlinks to criminals

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa on Sunday (July 13, 2025) suspended the nation’s police minister and introduced an investigation into allegations he has been colluding with legal syndicates.

Mr. Ramaphosa’s actions comply with allegations made by a high police official within the KwaZulu-Natal province, Gen. Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi, that Senzo Mchunu and deputy police commissioner Shadrack Sibiya had interfered with delicate investigations.

Mr. Ramaphosa stated the probe might be headed by a decide, and introduced Firoz Cachalia because the performing minister of police.

“The fee will examine the function of present or former senior officers in sure establishments who could have aided or abetted the alleged legal exercise, didn’t act on credible intelligence or inner warnings, or benefited financially or politically from a syndicate’s operations,” Mr. Ramaphosa stated throughout a televised tackle on Sunday.

Throughout a press briefing final Sunday, Mr. Mkhwanazi additionally alleged that Mchunu and Sibiya disbanded a vital crime unit tasked with investigating repeated politically motivated killings within the province after it was revealed that crime syndicates have been behind the killings.

He alleged that an investigation by the unit confirmed that some “politicians, legislation enforcement, SAPS (South African Police Service), metro police and correctional companies, prosecutors, judiciary” have been being “managed by drug cartels and in addition to businesspeople.”

The investigation would come with among the nation’s crime and justice companies, together with the Nationwide Prosecuting Authority and the State Safety Company, Mr. Ramaphosa stated.

Most opposition events on Sunday criticized Mr. Ramaphosa for not firing Mchunu as a substitute of putting him on a depart of absence.

“This was a possibility to take South Africans into confidence and to cope with these points decisively, as a substitute he requires a fee of inquiry and expects South Africans to be affected person when individuals are dying every day,” stated Nhlamulo Ndhlela, spokesperson of official opposition MK Social gathering.