NATASHA MARRIAN: Mogotsi’s script for the theatre of the absurd

Advocate Matthew Chaskalson, the son of former chief justice Arthur Chaskalson, calmly shattered the self-assured whoppers with which Brown Mogotsi sought to manipulate the nation as he gave evidence before the Madlanga commission into political interference in the police.

Mogotsi, alleged ANC fixer and campaign runner for police minister Senzo Mchunu — who is on special leave — arrived at the commission armed with a narrative of tall tales to present to the crack legal minds assembled before him: Chaskalson and the commissioners themselves, retired Constitutional Court justice Mbuyiseli Madlanga and advocates Sesi Baloyi and Sandile Khumalo.

This was Mogotsi’s story.

Lt-Gen Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi’s media briefing on July 6, aimed at exposing alleged corruption and political interference in the police by Mchunu and deputy national commissioner Lt-Gen Shadrack Sibiya, was an act of “misdirection”, Mogotsi claimed.

Its aim was to distract the nation from Mkhwanazi’s own dark secret — that he is a CIA operative. Mogotsi told the commission that he himself is a contact agent for crime intelligence. His purported handler and co-handlers were identified to the commissioners, and while their names were not immediately made public, the name of a “Brigadier Johnson” did emerge during proceedings.

Mogotsi’s main handler, who is apparently ill in hospital, corroborated his story, Chaskalson confirmed to the commission — though Chaskalson made it clear he had questions for the handler that would have to wait for the latter’s recovery.

Mogotsi told the commission that Zulu King Misuzulu kaZwelithini had also been recruited by the CIA. He said the Richards Bay coal terminal, and a nearby mine, were controlled by Israeli interests, and after the South African government initiated the genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice, these interests and the CIA feared there might be repercussions for the Richards Bay business.

This information, Mogotsi said, was given to him by a source in Nairobi who the late police minister Nathi Mthethwa had put him in touch with. He claimed he flew to Nairobi, met the source (named George), got the lowdown on Mkhwanazi’s CIA links and flew back to South Africa — all in a day’s work.

It was clear where the real “misdirection” was coming from. Chaskalson quizzed Mogotsi about the information around the “Richards Bay mine”, getting him to concede that there are, in fact, no coal mines in Richards Bay. And that the Richards Bay coal terminal is owned by a conglomerate of 10-15 mining companies, not “the Israelis”.

“You say in your statement that there was a fear that the coal terminal and the export route were going to be shut down. That is in your statement. That is apparently why the so-called Western interests got interested,” said Chaskalson.

“What I want to put to you is that there has never been any suggestion from the government that the Richards Bay coal terminal is going to be shut down, and that on the contrary, in the period you speak of, the government has been investing hundreds of millions of rands in improving the rail link to Richards Bay.

Now there are more questions for Mchunu, despite his ardent declaration that his reasons for dissolving the team were above board

“If you or your handler were genuinely investigating a CIA plot through Gen Mkhwanazi to protect Israeli interests, you would have been able to discover the facts that I have just given you in five minutes on the internet. You really would not have come up with a story which is self-evidently absurd.”

But amid the farce, crucial information emerged about the only tangible evidence that seems to implicate Mchunu. Mogotsi began relaying all the reasons the political killings task team (PKTT) had to be disbanded — unwittingly showing up Mchunu, who had signed the letter ordering the “immediate” dissolution of the team.

Mchunu appeared before the parliamentary ad hoc committee that is holding a separate inquiry into Mkhwanazi’s allegations, where his reasons for disbanding the PKTT on New Year’s Eve when national police commissioner Gen Fannie Masemola was on leave simply did not add up.

His account started with a directive from 2019 (a year after the PKTT team was established) to absorb the team into the murder and robbery unit, then skipped to budgetary issues and then shifted to allegations of wrongdoing (without evidence) by researcher Mary de Haas and police whistleblower Patricia Mashale.

De Haas subsequently appeared before the same committee and refused to provide evidence that she claimed to have about wrongdoing by PKTT members.

Interestingly, Mogotsi also discussed allegations by De Haas and Mashale, but went further. He spoke of the PKTT’s treatment of Vusimuzi “Cat” Matlala, whom crime intelligence boss Lt-Gen Dumisani Khumalo has alleged was a part of a “Big Five” cartel with links to senior police brass, via Mogotsi and Mchunu’s chief of staff, Cedrick Nkabinde.

Mogotsi suggested that PKTT members strayed beyond their mandate by raiding Matlala’s house while they were in Gauteng to help with an investigation into the murder of Q-Tech Engineering employee Armand Swart. That was after provincial detectives faced interference from senior police officers. “I don’t know how they ended up going to Cat Matlala’s house,” said Mogotsi. “Did he fall within their scope of operation?”

Mogotsi further claimed that there was a perception that the PKTT was being used to “settle political scores”, allegedly by Mchunu’s predecessor Bheki Cele, who had told the parliamentary inquiry that Mchunu’s disbanding of the team was unprocedural and wrong.

Mogotsi refused to be drawn on the content of phone conversations between him and Mchunu via the Signal app after the disbanding of the team, but he inadvertently cast a shadow over the minister’s motives for having ordered this.

Now there are more questions for Mchunu, despite his ardent declaration that his reasons for dissolving the team were above board. “My decision to disband the PKTT was taken for lawful reasons. It is false that there was any ulterior motive behind the decision,” he told MPs.

Mchunu’s own imminent appearance before Madlanga should bring a moment of reckoning, given how increasingly contradictory versions of events are proliferating.