‘It’s a Big Elephant’: Mkhwanazi Deploys National Task Team to Eat Organised Crime ‘Bit by Bit’*

KZN top cop Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi, whose contract as KZN provincial commissioner was recently extended by five years, is now spearheading a national organised crime intervention modelled on the Political Killings Task Team (PKTT). The new unit pulls detectives, intelligence, crime combating, and uniformed branches under a single central command.

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PRETORIA — KZN top cop Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi is taking the fight against organised crime national, warning that the syndicates he’s targeting are entrenched, sophisticated, and often “intersect with government structures.”

“The work has already started. I was in Pretoria a few days this week, and next week I’ll be back in Pretoria again. I’m going to be in Cape Town,” Mkhwanazi said. “So the work has already started.”

Mkhwanazi, whose contract as KZN provincial commissioner was recently extended by five years, is now spearheading a national organised crime intervention modelled on the Political Killings Task Team (PKTT). The new unit pulls detectives, intelligence, crime combating, and uniformed branches under a single central command.

The reason: coordination. “What we’ve been seeing as a challenge is the coordination of the work of all these different disciplines,” he said. “With the organised crime approach, we are bringing different disciplines under one command so that we can have a focused investigation.”

Pretoria team sifts dockets, sets targets

A dedicated team in Pretoria has already begun analysing dockets to decide which organised crime cases to hit first. Mkhwanazi said the approach will be intelligence-led, using the entire security and defence cluster to profile syndicates.

“They have analysed dockets that we are going to begin with very soon, so that we can identify which ones to tackle first. Intelligence will help us with profiling — not only crime intelligence, but the entire security and defence cluster,” he said.

The net is wide. The operation will go beyond local street gangs to target drug networks, sophisticated heists, and international criminal groups with South African links. Mkhwanazi was blunt about the difficulty: “Prosecuting organised crime cases was complex and time-consuming, particularly where criminal networks may intersect with government structures.”

“When we take dockets to court, it takes time for cases to be finalised. Organised crime involves many structures, and in some instances, there are elements within municipalities or other entities that must be uncovered,” he added.

‘Everyone checks everyone’: Killing corruption in the ranks

Mkhwanazi said the task team is also designed to clean house. Poor supervision, he argued, has left police members exposed.

“What we’ve seen a lot is that members are left sometimes to run on their own, and that’s why they get corrupted easily — because there’s no close monitoring or supervision,” he said.

The fix is baked into the structure: tight monitoring and mutual accountability. “Under the new task-team approach, members will work within a tightly monitored structure that embeds accountability. When you bring them under one team, everyone checks everyone. That is basically what we’re trying to achieve,” Mkhwanazi said.

A national beat, province to province

The new mandate means Mkhwanazi will be on the road. “It keeps me in South Africa. I will still be working in the province, but moving around — not necessarily being in KZN all the time. I will be moving up and down, trying to coordinate both,” he said.

“As time progresses, we will see how feasible it is to do both, and then maybe have discussions thereafter.”

He’s under no illusions about speed. “It’s a big elephant. We won’t finish it at once. We have to take it bit by bit,” Mkhwanazi said. Still, he’s bullish: the assembled team will deliver results.

The intervention lands as public pressure mounts on SAPS to dismantle syndicates tied to construction site extortion, cash heists, drugs, and municipal tender fraud. For Mkhwanazi, the message is clear — the national takedown has begun, and it won’t be confined to one province.