Ad Hoc Committee hears Nkabinde describe secret boys trip with Mkhwanazi

Suspended Police Minister Senzo Mchunu’s Chief of Staff, Cedric Nkabinde, appeared before the SAPS Ad Hoc Committee on Thursday. The hearing follows remarks by KwaZulu-Natal Police Commissioner Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi, who called Nkabinde clueless and unqualified. Nkabinde’s name has also emerged in proceedings at the Madlanga Commission.

Evidence leader Advocate Norman Arendse SC read out a statement submitted by Nkabinde. The statement said that before Lieutenant General Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi visited his house and asked him to accompany him to Empangeni the next day, Nkabinde had planned to visit Minister Mchunu, then Minister of Water and Sanitation, who is based in Empangeni.

Nkabinde confirmed the statement, saying, “Yes chair.”

Arendse asked whether it was a coincidence that Nkabinde planned to visit Minister Mchunu while Mkhwanazi also wanted to go to Empangeni. Nkabinde replied, “Chair in the context of this, it was not that the next day I had a planned appointment with Minister Mchunu. When Mkhwanazi wanted me to accompany him to the area, then I just started thinking that there is a person there that I was planning at one stage to go and see. So if you want me to go there with you, let us rather pass by and I want to greet the Minister, of which Mkhwanazi had no problem, and the Minister also had no problem.”

Arendse asked why Mkhwanazi wanted to meet the Minister of Water and Sanitation. Nkabinde said Mkhwanazi had never indicated that he wanted to meet the Minister. He explained that they were going to Empangeni as friends, and that he suggested passing by to greet Minister Mchunu while there.

When asked about the errands he had to undertake, Nkabinde said they were personal. “Chair I wrote it deliberately like this because it was personal stuff of Mkhwanazi, where I was accompanying him, he was a very close friend of mine,” he said.

Pressed further to describe the errands, Nkabinde hesitated before saying, “I think it is safe to say it was a boys trip.” Members of the Ad Hoc Committee laughed. Nkabinde added that it was safe to say it in this way to avoid trouble with their wives. He said, “I believe his wife and my wife are watching here. So I do not want to say much. It was personal.”

Arendse asked if Minister Mchunu had been curious about their presence in Empangeni. Nkabinde said he did not ask why they were there and that he did not know what they were in the area for.

Nkabinde also described his relationship with Mkhwanazi. He said they are close friends and that he helped Mkhwanazi secure a job in a private company as head of forensic. He added that they visited each other’s homes and knew each other’s families.

The committee continued its questioning as part of an ongoing investigation into Nkabinde’s conduct and his role in the SAPS.