The National Commissioner of Police
Deputy National Commissioners present
Representative of from the Departments of NPA, Correctional Services, Justice and SSA
Divisional Commissioners present
The Acting Provincial Commissioner
Members of the media
Ladies and gentlemen

Receive my revolutionary greetings this morning

As the Inter-Ministerial Committee appointed by the President of the Republic, his Excellency, President Cyril Ramaphosa, our purpose here today is to inform the nation about the progress of the investigations into the political killings in KwaZulu-Natal.

As a way of progress, we have taken a decision to change the members of the task team that was responsible for the investigations into the political killings. The new project team has 118 new members plus 8 members from the previous task team who have been retained.

This team has now adopted a project-driven approach meaning that they will have dedicated human and physical resources. The human resources includes seasoned and experienced detectives from various provinces including KwaZulu-Natal, Gauteng, Mpumalanga, Eastern Cape and Western Cape.

The team comprises of 126 members led by the Acting Provincial Commissioner, Lieutenant General Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi and Brigadiers Ngwenya and Khumalo.

The National Prosecuting Authority has also dedicated 16 experienced and seasoned prosecutors led by Advocate Selepe to support the investigating team to ensure effective case management and successful prosecutions.

We are satisfied with the work that this team has been doing thus far. Two weeks ago they have arrested six people in connection with the spate of political killings. Two firearms were recovered and have already been linked to at least eight cases.

KwaZulu-Natal like the other 8 provinces is under stabilisation meaning this province has also adopted a dedicated integrated multi-disciplinary approach on all areas of criminality. This team will be expected to function independently moving forward.

Furthermore, you may recall that at the beginning of June this year the National Commissioner of Police and myself pronounced on the implementation of stabilisation interventions throughout the country after the country has been plagued by a number of crimes of fear including political killings here in KwaZulu-Natal.

Our mandate as the South African Police Service derived from Section 205 of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa is to prevent, combat and investigate crime

It gives me great pleasure to announce that since the beginning of June the police throughout KwaZulu-Natal have proactively dealt a decisive blow to criminality in this province when they achieved the following successes:

• 512 people have been arrested for illegal possession of arms and/or ammunition
• During these continuing stabilisation interventions they have also seized 706 illegal guns including semi-automatic rifles, high calibre rifles (hunting rifles), shotguns, revolvers, pistols and homemade guns.
• A total of 6045 rounds of ammunition were also taken away from our streets

I thank you.