Is this the end for Senzo Mchunu?

Police raid suspended Police Minister Mchunu's KZN home for the second time, seizing phone again under High Court warrant for fraud investigation

Mchunu says he will respond to the issues around raids and seizure of his gadgets

By CHRIS MAKHAYE

ON Monday this week KZN police raided the KwaZulu-Natal home of suspended Police Minister Senzo Mchunu for a second time, seizing electronic devices. For a man who started with chalk in hand, it is a brutal fall.

Members of the provincial serious and violent crimes unit executed a Johannesburg High Court search and seizure warrant at his private family home on Monday. KZN police say it is a normal investigative process linked to fraud and defeating the ends of justice cases opened at Durban Central in October last year.

The Raids

It is the second raid. In January he voluntarily handed over devices to the Political Killings Task Team. In October 2025 a first attempt was blocked at his gate.

His spokesman Sthembiso Mshengu confirmed the raid.

"As a law-abiding citizen and in the presence of his attorney, Minister Mchunu handed over the handset in line with the directive of the court," Mshengu said. "It must be noted that this is the second time police have seized these communication tools without having returned the first set. These things are planned somewhere and are aimed at destroying him politically and otherwise. Minister Mchunu will be responding formally in the coming weeks."

But that response may be too late.

From Principal to Pariah

Edward Senzo Mchunu, 67, was once the ANC's clean man. Born in eNhlwathi, Hlabisa, he trained as a teacher — BA in Education and International Relations from the University of Zululand and Unisa — and taught at St Augustine's in Nquthu and Impande High in Nkandla from 1985 until he quit in 1991 to become a full-time ANC organiser.

He rose as the ANC's inaugural KZN provincial secretary in 1994, then Education MEC under Zweli Mkhize, then Premier from 2013 to 2016 before losing to Sihle Zikalala. A former Zuma ally, he switched to Cyril Ramaphosa and helped deliver Nasrec in 2017 and 2022. Ramaphosa rewarded him: Public Service and Administration, Water and Sanitation, then Police Minister in June 2024. He was even tipped as a possible ANC president in 2027.

6 July Effect

The collapse began on July 6, 2025.

KZN Police Commissioner Lt-Gen Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi held an extraordinary media briefing and accused his own boss of being captured. Mkhwanazi alleged Mchunu received payments from businessman Vusimuzi "Cat" Matlala — who had just been awarded a R360-million SAPS health tender through Medicare24 Tshwane District and now faces murder and money-laundering charges — to fund his political ambitions. He alleged Mchunu personally signed the letter disbanding the Political Killings Task Team on December 31, 2024, on instruction from fixer Brown Mogotsi, to protect drug cartels and politically connected suspects.

Mchunu denied ever meeting Matlala and said he had briefed the President about closing the PKTT. Ramaphosa said he never approved it and only learned of it from National Commissioner Fannie Masemola on February 1, 2025.

“Presidential Protection”

Ramaphosa protected him. Instead of firing him, he placed him on special leave on July 13, 2025, appointed Prof Firoz Cachalia as acting minister, and set up the Madlanga Commission chaired by retired Justice Mbuyiseli Madlanga.

Parliament's Ad Hoc Committee earlier cleared him of criminal conduct over the PKTT, but the Madlanga hearings have done the opposite — witnesses confirming money flows from Matlala.

Political analyst Prof Ntsikelelo Breakfast of Nelson Mandela University, speaking after the raid, said redemption looks impossible.

"It is going to be very difficult for him to redeem himself. Many of the things Mkhwanazi said, including the relationship with Cat Matlala and the underworld, have been confirmed by witnesses. It will be difficult for Mchunu to get out of this web," Breakfast told IOL and eNCA.

Same week, SAPS implodes

The raid came in the same 24 hours that the top of the SAPS imploded — exposing the very crisis Mkhwanazi warned about.

Suspended Deputy National Commissioner Lt-Gen Shadrack Sibiya — the country's top detective, widely tipped to take over from Masemola — was arrested on Monday night at a strip club in Rivonia by the Madlanga Recommendations Task Team.

He appeared in Randburg Magistrate's Court on Tuesday on five counts: rape, trafficking in persons and three counts of sexual grooming of a child.

The state alleges he raped an 18-year-old woman at a Sandton hotel in May and groomed a 16-year-old girl via WhatsApp between July and August, inducing her to send explicit videos. Bail was postponed to September 29. He was sent to Kgosi Mampuru II prison after intelligence warned he could escape from a police facility.

Hours later, his boss walked free.

Gen. Masemola Walks Free

Suspended National Commissioner Gen Fannie Masemola had four counts of contravening Section 38 of the Public Finance Management Act withdrawn in Pretoria Magistrate's Court.

The charges related to his role as accounting officer for the same R360-million Medicare24 tender to Matlala. About R50-million was paid before SAPS cancelled it in May 2025. The charge sheet did not allege personal fraud.

NDPP Adv Andy Mothibi withdrew them, saying no reasonable prospects of successful prosecution.

The case, driven by the now-disbanded Independent Directorate Against Corruption, was flagged at Madlanga as procedurally flawed.

"It has been tough, a very painful road. I don't wish anyone to go through this," Masemola said outside court. "I am eager to get back and serve the country, but I still have to wait for the employer." TQ