Cop vs Cop: inside the Madlanga commission

Lt-Gen Dumisani Khumalo does not look like a typical sleuth. He wears a bright orange thimblette, sometimes on his right thumb but mostly on his index finger, as he works through the papers in brick-like files of evidence. His barely rimmed spectacles glint as he shifts his head to scan the room from time to time — as if sweeping for threats.

He has a slight slouch and speaks in a dull monotone, for more than 20 hours spread over four days. On the witness stand, he wears only dark-hued suits, always with a tie in the exact matching colour.

Khumalo’s explosive evidence at the Madlanga commission has thrown unprecedented light on the darkness of the criminal underworld and on its alleged connections with the halls of power in South Africa.

The commission’s terms of reference are broad — and it seems they need to be. By presidential proclamation, it must inquire into “criminality, political interference and corruption in the criminal justice system, arising from the specific allegations made public by Lt-Gen Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi on July 6 2025”. A parliamentary ad hoc committee is also investigating the allegations.

Mkhwanazi is commissioner of police in KwaZulu-Natal. His dramatic media conference got the nation’s attention, but it is now clear that the main protagonist is Khumalo, the police’s national head of crime intelligence. He was also the project manager for the political killings task team (PKTT) in KZN.

Khumalo’s division stepped in last year to help the Gauteng organised crime division with an investigation in which detectives had reported unprecedented interference and risk to their lives. The PKTT’s involvement apparently provoked its disbandment in December 2024, on the instruction of police minister Senzo Mchunu (since placed on “special leave” by President Cyril Ramaphosa).

Mkhwanazi’s allegations in July generated great heat but not much light. It was hard to tell who the good guys were in this extraordinary cop vs cop drama. But a clearer picture has been steadily emerging at the commission.

To understand the context, we need to go back to a murder committed in Vereeniging on Wednesday April 17 2024.

Armand Swart, a 30-year-old father of two, arrived at work at the offices of engineering firm Q-Tech. Having driven in peak-hour traffic, he was unaware he had been followed by a Mercedes-Benz C-Class and a white Hyundai i20. He was also unaware that his office had been under surveillance for at least five days before that.

As he parked his silver Ford Ranger, gunmen in the Hyundai sprayed 23 bullets into his car, killing him. CCTV footage and witnesses helped the detectives who arrived at the scene to act quickly. They soon arrested three suspects, at two separate locations in Gauteng.

However, three of the five detectives initially investigating the murder later withdrew from the case, apparently because of intimidation and threats.

The events following Swart’s murder were described at the Madlanga commission by the remaining two detectives. They testified from unknown locations, via audio feed, to conceal their identities. They have been in hiding since late August last year.

Throughout my career, I have been dealing with complex matters, mainly serious and violent crimes. But with this case ... it has escalated to the extreme.

—  Witness B

“Throughout my career, I have been dealing with complex matters, mainly serious and violent crimes,” the detective known as Witness B told the commission. “But with this case, it has been a unique one. I think it has escalated to the extreme. And it has so many interferences. It has so many threats. Not that I never dealt with threats before, but in this instance, it was so intense.”

Of the three men arrested for the hit, one was a policeman, Michael Pule Tau. He was found in the northeastern Joburg suburb of Bramley, in a Mercedes Viano. In the vehicle detectives found 15 spent rifle cartridges in a transparent plastic bag. They confiscated four cellphones. Tau argued that his “brother was a professional hunter”, hence the heavy weaponry at his home.

The white Hyundai was recovered at a house in nearby Kew, belonging to another suspect, Musa Kekana. The third suspect, Tiego Floyd Mabusela, was tracked down in his Mercedes C-Class at an Engen garage in Klip River, near Q-Tech’s premises.

When the accused appeared in court two days after the shootings, the courtroom was packed. Because Tau was a police officer from the Joburg central station, detectives surmised that many of those who attended were cops, though none was in uniform.

The mood was tense, and the investigating detectives were followed from the court. There was an attempt to force them off the road. Witnesses A and B told the commission they had returned to the office and reported the incidents to their superiors. They said nothing was done to protect them.

Their investigation continued. They linked Tau to one Katiso “KT” Molefe via cellphone records. Three days before the hit on Swart, Molefe sent Tau a message with the names and cellphone numbers of several Q-Tech employees. There was communication between the pair as Tau surveyed the premises.

What was the motive for the Swart murder? It has emerged that Molefe was linked to the SK Group, which had won a tender from Transnet under dubious circumstances. Molefe’s nephew Lucky Molefe (currently on the run) was employed at Transnet.

Apparently competing with the SK Group for the Transnet tender were two other entities, Stryforth and Mountgate — but both were dormant companies. The bidding process, “won” by SK Group, was faked to enable corruption.

What complicated matters for this devious scheme was Q-Tech. It had been supplying “springs and accessories” to Transnet for 40 years.

In 2023, Q-Tech was surprised by a request from SK Group for a particular spring it had been supplying to Transnet — and by the fact that the tender had not been advertised.

What was worse, when Q-Tech received the purchase order from SK Group, it noticed that the spring, which should have cost just under R4, was now being sold to the rail operator for R151 apiece. Q-Tech mentioned this to a Transnet inspector, who escalated the matter.

In the end, SK had to revise the price, which left Q-Tech with two purchase orders. A whistleblower smelt a rat, and the company reported the matter to the department of public enterprises, which ordered Transnet to investigate. Lucky Molefe was confronted — and shortly afterwards the surveillance of Q-Tech employees began, culminating in Swart’s murder.

During the surveillance and attempts by Tau and Molefe to identify the whistleblower, there were several visits to the Q-Tech offices — but they never did find their man. “It was not Mr Swart,” Witness B told the commission. “It was mistaken identity.”

Once the investigation into the Swart murder was under way, the head of the SAPS organised crime division, Maj-Gen Richard Shibiri, summoned the pair of detectives on the case to his office. It seems to have been the first sign of meddling from high-ranking SAPS officers.

Shibiri warned them that the case was “very sensitive” and that those arrested were connected to “people who are very dangerous”. Shibiri, they testified, also alerted the detectives to “envelopes on offer” — one for the detectives, one for the prosecutor and one for the magistrate in the case.

A week later, the detectives were invited to a party by an acquaintance who had worked with their unit in the past, Vusi Ndlala. Witness A expressed surprise that Shibiri was present at this party. He said he felt uncomfortable, as it was the first time he had seen Shibiri since the “envelopes offer”. He thought Shibiri might want to continue that discussion, but he never did.

Ndlala appeared well acquainted with Molefe’s influence within the justice system. He had told Witness A that Tau would receive bail before it happened, despite all evidence pointing towards the court denying him bail. Tau’s release on bail set off a string of events, which culminated in Molefe’s arrest and, crucially, the involvement of the PKTT and its subsequent disbandment by Mchunu on December 31.

What deepened the detectives’ suspicions of interference was that the ballistics report conducted on the firearms collected from the suspects left out a crucial piece of evidence — the 15 spent cartridges. Eventually, they sent the same weapons to the KZN ballistics testing centre, after receiving little joy in Pretoria.

The account of the Swart murder and of the events experienced by the detectives dubbed Witnesses A, B and C provided practical detail relating to earlier testimony by Khumalo at the Madlanga commission in September.

Khumalo spent a considerable amount of time detailing the formation, functionality and the work of the PKTT — and then how its involvement in Gauteng around the “takedown” of Molefe, who is alleged to be one of the “Big Five”, apparently led to its disbandment by Mchunu.

“It is my view that the attempt to disband the PKTT was due to the influence of a particular organised crime cartel over the ministry of police, as well as the South African Police Service, who mistakenly thought that the PKTT was investigating the same cartel,” he told the commission.

The Big Five, he alleged, were members of a ruthless Gauteng cartel involved in drug trafficking, contract killings, cross-border hijackings and cash-in-transit heists.

“The Big Five has already penetrated the political sphere,” said Khumalo, “and there are documented cases of high-profile connections in the political arena, senior politicians alleged to be complicit and/or wilfully blind to the syndicate’s operations.

“Some of the criminal activities are related to tender frauding. It talks to public procurement and tender systems, which will then talk to illegal procurement of contracts, targeting state funds. The illicit money can then be laundered, or used to fund the illegal operations by the cartel.”

Enter Vusimuzi “Cat” Matlala.

Along with Molefe, Matlala was identified as another of the “Big Five”. He was arrested for attempted murder on May 14 this year and gave permission for his devices to be analysed when they were seized.

Matlala is allegedly the link between the cartel and Mchunu, via an ANC power broker, Brown Mogotsi.

At the opening of the Madlanga commission, Mkhwanazi testified that he began receiving WhatsApp messages from Mogotsi and was taken aback at his level of knowledge about high-level SAPS operations. Mogotsi was identified as a “close friend” of Mchunu by Cedrick Nkabinde, Mchunu’s now suspended chief of staff.

Another police witness whose identity was withheld testified about Matlala’s phone records, linking him to Maj-Gen Lesetja Senona, head of the Hawks in KZN.

Senona’s ties to Matlala are allegedly deep, with allegations that Senona’s son had a property purchased for him by Matlala. Senona had also apparently shared information with Matlala about the PKTT, according to evidence from the latter’s cellphone.

The records also indicate a link to another ANC member, Suleiman Kareem, who received at least two payments totalling R2.5m from Matlala. This was allegedly for work on the now infamous (and cancelled) R360m police contract that Matlala’s company Medicare24 received. A woman linked to Mogotsi also received R92,000 from Matlala.

Matlala was also shown to have Ekurhuleni metro police officer Julius Mkhwanazi on his payroll, as well as self-styled “crime expert and security analyst” Calvin Rafadi, who actively propagated negative perceptions about the PKTT through high-profile media interviews.

They value loyalty, common history, more especially to influence investigations and prosecutions involving cartel members

—  Lt-Gen Dumisani Khumalo

“The most important thing in this cartel — they value loyalty, common history as well as proven capability, more especially to influence the investigations and prosecutions of incidents involving the cartel members,” Khumalo told the commission.

Another police investigator, Witness C, described a search and seizure raid at Matlala’s home on the same day Molefe was arrested in December. During the raid, cellphones and firearms were seized — but Matlala also did a lot of name-dropping. He said he was closely connected to deputy national commissioner Lt-Gen Shadrack Sibiya, SAPS counterintelligence head Maj-Gen Feroz Khan and organised crime division boss Shibiri.

Witness C told the commission that Matlala had said during his arrest in May that he was frustrated by Sibiya, to whom he said he had made numerous payments. Witness C said Matlala had told him he delivered R2m in cash to Sibiya at his Sandton home to buy a plot; that he had given him 20 impala as a gift; and had dropped off an undisclosed amount of cash in a dustbin outside Sibiya’s office, in exchange for help resolving the problems he experienced with the SAPS Medicare tender.

Khumalo said Matlala had also made payments to Mogotsi to bankroll the entertainment of delegates to the ANC’s January 8 celebrations, with the intention of helping Mchunu secure the presidency of the ANC in 2027.

“In return, Mr Mogotsi uses his influence within the SAPS and the ministry to manipulate SAPS processes, so as to frustrate criminal investigations into Mr Vusimuzi Matlala. Also leaks highly confidential or classified information of the SAPS to Mr Matlala. Also co-ordinates the payments from the SAPS to the Medicare24 Tshwane District, a company owned by Mr Matlala, which unlawfully procured a contract from SAPS worth R360m,” Khumalo told the commission.

“In pursuit of these goals, Mr Mogotsi, [had the] mistaken belief that an investigation into Mr Matlala was being conducted by the PKTT. As pointed out above, it was actually the investigation conducted by the Gauteng counterintelligence operations. Mr Mogotsi pursued the dis-establishment of the PKTT — a mistaken identity.”

The mistaken identity theme extends to Khumalo himself. He alleged that Mogotsi had sought to have him subjected to criminal or disciplinary proceedings based on a Constitutional Court case against a different member of the SAPS with the same surname, a Brig Muso Khumalo. Khumalo drily remarked that Mogotsi thought the case referred to him, in a “somewhat comical attempt” to implicate him.

Khumalo is, however, facing charges for hiring a 30-year-old mechatronics technician from BMW at the senior level of brigadier-general in the police. This case is being pursued by the Independent Directorate Against Corruption, whose head, Andrea Johnson, in testimony before parliament’s ad hoc committee, defended Khumalo’s arrest and prosecution, saying what he had allegedly done amounted to “state capture”.

Khumalo has defended the appointment, saying the woman’s specific skills — in combining both mechanical and electrical engineering — were required for crime intelligence’s “covert needs”. The post was only advertised externally after a search within the SAPS.

Khumalo concluded his testimony at the Madlanga commission with a summary. He said that only after two key members of the Big Five were hit with an arrest (Molefe) and the search and seizure (Matlala) on December 6, did the minister and the likes of Sibiya begin acting against the PKTT. Khumalo’s own arrest also followed these moves.

“It is clear that up until the operations conducted on the 6th of December, neither Minister Mchunu nor Lt-Gen Sibiya expressed any concern on issues with the functioning and existence of PKTT. There was no indication of dissatisfaction or objection regarding the team’s activities or mandate.

“However, following these events of the 6th of December, there has been a marked and co-ordinated effort to dismantle PKTT, seemingly without any consideration of the ongoing investigations, active court proceedings, or adherence to established legal requirements,” said Khumalo.

“This abrupt change suggests that actions taken by the PKTT during the 6th of December operations triggered a targeted campaign to undermine and ultimately disband the team, regardless of the broader implications for justice and the due process.”

It was towards mid-2024 that Mchunu was earmarked by ANC power brokers, who had previously backed Ramaphosa, as the latter’s potential successor. He seemed to fit the bill: he was unscathed by any significant corruption scandals, or any other scandals for that matter. ANC insiders were desperately seeking an alternative to Deputy President Paul Mashatile, who remains the front-runner in the race to succeed Ramaphosa.

A cloud hangs over Mashatile, due to reports questioning his lavish lifestyle — he has multimillion-rand homes in Constantia in Cape Town and in Waterfall, Gauteng. He argues that they belong to his son and son-in-law respectively.

After the ANC’s 17 percentage point fall in electoral support in 2024, Ramaphosa backers knew it was crucial to field an untainted candidate who could also help the party recover the support it lost in KZN to Jacob Zuma’s MK Party. Who better than Mchunu, a former KZN premier and later a relatively successful national minister of water affairs?

Mchunu, placed on special leave by Ramaphosa after Mkhwanazi’s allegations were made, had disbanded the PKTT on December 31 last year, when national commissioner Gen Fannie Masemola was on leave. Mchunu’s order raised questions about political interference in an operational matter.

During testimony before parliament’s ad hoc committee, Mchunu addressed the timing of his decision and maintained that there was no link with any other SAPS operations. Defending the move, he said he had been thinking about it as far back as November and he had raised his concerns with the SAPS leadership at that time.

I am being haunted by murders, the high rate of murders, the proliferation of firearms in communities

—  Senzo Mchunu

“It is the concerns that I raised with the national commissioner, deputy national commissioners and provincial commissioners in November. I said I am being haunted by murders, the high rate of murders, the proliferation of firearms in communities and the havoc that these firearms are causing and the drugs,” he said.

Mchunu said he took full responsibility for the letter disbanding the team, saying he and an adviser (advocate Vusi Pikoli) had written it. He said another adviser (Nkabinde, with purported links to Mogotsi) had nothing to do with it.

Mchunu’s two deputy ministers, Cassel Mathale and Polly Boshielo, testified that they were not consulted before the letter was sent, and that they would have handled the matter differently. Mchunu’s predecessor Bheki Cele (who admitted to using Matlala’s penthouse after he left office) also said he would not have disbanded the PKTT the way Mchunu did.

The ad hoc committee is set to visit Kgosi Mampuru prison in the coming weeks, where committee members will hear evidence from Matlala himself.

Sibiya has intimated that he was the target of an internal factional fight at SAPS. Testifying in his own defence before the parliamentary committee, Sibiya admitted to meeting Matlala and Mogotsi once each, but denied playing a role in pushing for access to the PKTT dockets, saying they were lying dormant anyway. The dockets were taken from Durban to Pretoria and later returned.

The testimony before the Madlanga commission and the parliamentary inquiry indicates, at the very least, crippling infighting between divisions that are central to the fight against crime, and between individuals at the highest levels.

At worst, the highest ranks of the police are crammed with criminals who have been operating with the connivance of senior politicians and office-bearers.