CAPE TOWN, Friday 11 September 2026 — Parliament’s ad hoc committee investigating allegations by KwaZulu-Natal police commissioner Lieutenant-General Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi has asked National Assembly Speaker Thoko Didiza for another extension to complete its report, meaning the inquiry may miss the 11 September deadline Parliament previously set for finalising its work.
Committee chairperson Soviet Lekganyane confirmed during Thursday evening’s deliberations that the committee had written to the Speaker in anticipation of needing additional time because of the volume of material still being processed.
The request is not yet an extension.
Parliament must formally approve or otherwise authorise a revised deadline before the committee’s reporting date changes.
The development is significant because the committee is already deep into clause-by-clause deliberations on a draft report running to hundreds of pages after more than a year of evidence, procedural disputes and repeated deadline pressure.
Committee still working through draft on eve of deadline
Parliament confirmed on Thursday that the committee would again meet virtually to continue considering its draft report.
By Thursday evening, however, members had not completed the document.
Lekganyane said the committee had therefore approached Didiza before the 11 September deadline expired.
“With regard to the deadline of the committee … we have written to the office of the Speaker, pre-emptively, because we understand the volume of the work,” he said during the proceedings, according to contemporaneous reporting.
The report still has to move through the remaining deliberative process before it can be adopted and tabled in the National Assembly.
Inquiry has already required repeated extensions
The committee was established after Mkhwanazi’s July 2025 allegations of political interference, corruption and criminal infiltration within parts of the police and criminal-justice system.
Its timetable has subsequently been extended several times.
In February, the National Assembly approved another extension after the committee said it required additional time to hear witnesses and deal with parliamentary programme pressures.
The current reporting deadline was eventually set at 11 September 2026.
The committee’s latest request therefore reflects the continuing difficulty of completing an inquiry that accumulated extensive oral evidence, written submissions and documentary material before moving into detailed deliberations.
Draft has already produced significant proposed findings
Although the final report has not been adopted, the committee has publicly debated several potentially consequential findings and recommendations.
This week it recorded material inconsistencies in suspended Police Minister Senzo Mchunu’s evidence and concluded during its draft deliberations that the transfer of Political Killings Task Team case dockets disrupted investigative and prosecutorial continuity in at least some matters.
The committee has nevertheless stopped short of concluding that Mchunu’s directive to disband the unit was proved to have resulted from a corrupt agreement with an organised-crime network.
Those positions remain part of a draft process and should not be treated as final findings until the report is formally adopted.
SAPS militarisation recommendation also under consideration
Members have also agreed that Parliament should examine whether military-style ranks remain appropriate within the South African Police Service.
Parliament said MPs from different parties argued that systemic problems in policing could not be considered separately from organisational culture, command practices and the militarisation of SAPS.
The proposal would not itself change police ranks.
Any eventual demilitarisation would require further policy, regulatory or legislative processes after Parliament considers the committee’s recommendations.
Committee has had to distinguish allegations from findings
The inquiry was triggered by some of the most serious public allegations made about South Africa’s criminal-justice institutions in recent years.
Mkhwanazi alleged that political and criminal interests had interfered with policing and that the dismantling of the KwaZulu-Natal Political Killings Task Team had compromised investigations.
The allegations also became the subject of the separate Madlanga Commission, which is due to resume public hearings on 14 September following a short recess.
The two processes have different mandates.
Parliament’s committee is exercising legislative oversight, while the judicial commission is conducting a commission-of-inquiry process established by President Cyril Ramaphosa.
Neither process by itself constitutes a criminal prosecution.
Extension could delay final accountability decisions
The timing of the latest request matters because the final parliamentary report is expected to determine which draft findings survive deliberations and which recommendations are formally sent to the National Assembly.
Those recommendations could include referrals for further investigation, changes to SAPS governance and oversight, institutional reforms and possible action involving officials or office-bearers.
People who may be adversely affected by final findings must also be treated in accordance with procedural fairness requirements.
Rushing the final stages therefore carries legal and parliamentary risks, while another extension further delays the conclusion of an inquiry already operating well beyond its original timetable.
Speaker and Assembly now face deadline decision
Didiza’s response will determine whether the committee receives additional time or must attempt to complete the process immediately.
Previous extensions were approved because Parliament accepted that the committee could not responsibly conclude its work within the available period.
The latest request comes at a different stage: evidence gathering is substantially over, but members remain engaged in the politically and legally sensitive task of deciding what Parliament itself is prepared to find on the evidence.
Until an extension is formally approved, 11 September remains the operative reporting deadline.
The immediate development is therefore not another substantive finding against any witness, but a procedural one with major consequences for the inquiry: Parliament’s committee has acknowledged that it is not yet ready to complete the final report and has asked for more time.
