The Madlanga Commission of Inquiry · Live public record
The Madlanga Commission, the inquiry the country can’t stop watching.
The Madlanga Commission of Inquiry is South Africa’s judicial commission investigating criminal infiltration, political interference and corruption in the police, prosecution and intelligence services, chaired by Justice Mbuyiseli Madlanga. This archive turns the firehose of testimony - eight to ten hours a day, 141 sitting days - into a public record you can actually read: every hearing day, case, witness and network, cross-referenced.
- 141hearing days recorded
- 5case files reconstructed
- 23people tracked
- 2networks mapped
Counts update as the record grows. Last day added .
On the stand today
Who is testifying at the Madlanga Commission today
Witness to be confirmed
The Commission names each day's witness only once proceedings begin - the schedule is not published in advance. The name, photo and details will appear here as soon as the hearing is under way. In the meantime, browse the witnesses heard so far.
What this is
The complete Madlanga Commission public record
The Madlanga Commission of Inquiry is South Africa’s judicial commission of inquiry into criminality, political interference and corruption in the criminal justice system, chaired by retired Constitutional Court Justice Mbuyiseli Madlanga. This archive is the most complete public record of the Madlanga Commission — we index every Madlanga Commission hearing, ruling and witness so you can follow the latest testimony without watching the live feed.
Use it to track what the Madlanga Commission heard each day, who testified, and what the commission ruled. Start with the latest Madlanga Commission hearings, the case files, the commissioners and evidence leaders, or the frequently asked questions about the Madlanga Commission.
The lead story
Latest Madlanga Commission case file
Case file · IDAC vs Crime Intelligence
The Khumalo arrest and the Mokwele appointment - IDAC's case under the microscope
IDAC charged a Crime Intelligence boss over a civilian's appointment. Three days of testimony left the commission asking what the crime actually was - and why the file moved so fast.
Read the case fileThe people
Latest witnesses before the Madlanga Commission
Col Brian Padayachee
Senior investigator, Investigating Directorate Against Corruption (IDAC)
The senior Investigating Directorate Against Corruption (IDAC) investigator who led the directorate's fraud and corruption case against suspended SAPS Crime Intelligence head Lieutenant-General Dumisani Khumalo and others over the allegedly irregular appointment of Brigadier Dineo Mokwele. He gave evidence at the Madlanga Commission across three days (14, 15 and 16 July 2026, Days 139-141), defending the investigation as backed by strong evidence and denying that IDAC was being weaponised in police infighting - but he faced sustained scepticism from the panel over whether the directorate had any lawful basis for the case. He is an investigator giving evidence, not an accused before the commission.
Vusi Shongwe
MK Party Member of Parliament
An MK Party Member of Parliament who served on Parliament's ad hoc committee on policing and testified before the Madlanga Commission on 30 June 2026 (Day 129). Shongwe told the commission that as he pressed for suspended SAPS Crime Intelligence boss Major-General Feroz Khan to account before Parliament, Khan and his alleged associates offered him a R10 million bribe - and that EFF leader Julius Malema was the most vocal in opposing Khan being called to appear. He says he refused the offer, reported it to former president Jacob Zuma, and brought it to both the parliamentary committee and the commission. Everything below is his evidence; the allegations are untested and all those he names - Khan and Malema among them - are presumed innocent.
Itumeleng 'Tumelo' Nku
Businessman; disputed Aeroton police informer
A businessman at the centre of the Aeroton strand of the Madlanga Commission, who finally testified on 25-26 June 2026 (Days 126-127). Evidence is that Nku tipped off Gauteng traffic chief Samuel Mashaba to the cocaine truck travelling from Durban a day before the 2021 Aeroton bust, and the commission used his WhatsApp exchanges with Mashaba to question their relationship. Nku maintains he was an unregistered, unpaid police informer and described himself as a consultant skilled in data analysis, 'ethical hacking' and cyber-penetration testing who has been paid by foreign intelligence agencies; a Hawks analyst, Witness J, countered that he was 'a drug trafficker, not an informer'. He returned on 29 June with a substantially changed account, and on 2 July 2026 (Day 131) the commission postponed the remainder of his testimony indefinitely, citing security concerns. All references to him are untested allegations and he is presumed innocent.
Julius Mkhwanazi
Suspended Deputy Chief, Ekurhuleni Metro Police Department (EMPD)
The suspended Deputy Chief of the Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Police Department (EMPD), who testified before the Madlanga Commission on procurement and a 'blue lights' emergency-equipment scandal linked to alleged cartel figure Vusimuzi 'Cat' Matlala. He is NOT Lieutenant-General Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi, the KwaZulu-Natal provincial commissioner whose July 2025 allegations triggered this commission - they share a surname only. On 9 July 2026 he was granted R50,000 bail in the Germiston Magistrate's Court as one of the 'Ekurhuleni Four' officials charged with corruption over the alleged shielding of his blue-lights conduct and irregular salary adjustments. All matters below are allegations or contested testimony; he denies wrongdoing and is presumed innocent.
The objects
Latest exhibits from the record
The spine
Recent Madlanga Commission hearings
- 141
Col Brian Padayachee
Investigating Directorate Against Corruption (IDAC) investigator Brian Padayachee concluded a third day in the hot seat on the fraud and corruption case the directorate brought against Crime Intelligence head Lieutenant-General Dumisani Khumalo and co-accused over the allegedly irregular appointment of Brigadier Dineo Mokwele - a former BMW employee holding a mechatronics-engineering diploma and an industrial-engineering degree - to a brigadier-level post running Crime Intelligence's Technical Support Services unit. IDAC's theory that the appointment was an 'attempt to capture Crime Intelligence' met sustained scepticism across the three days: chairperson Mbuyiseli Madlanga had called the reasoning a 'quantum leap in logic', noting that SAPS regularly appoints civilians with specialist expertise and that a lack of policing experience does not by itself point to criminal conduct, while Commissioner Advocate Sesi Baloyi SC put it that National Coloured Congress MP Fadiel Adams's founding affidavit contained no allegation of corruption and read more like a human-resources dispute than a crime. IOL reported Padayachee's evidence as amounting to Mokwele being arrested over conduct investigators believed she might commit in future - he could not say when the alleged offence would occur - and the commission noted the charge dated the alleged offence to October 2024 although Mokwele only signed her contract that December, her appointment taking effect on 1 November 2024. On this day the evidence leaders walked the documentary record showing how the complaint reached IDAC within weeks, and the Mail & Guardian reported the commission heard IDAC had charged Khumalo 'on sparse facts'. All allegations are untested; Khumalo, Mokwele and those named are presumed innocent.
- 140
Col Brian Padayachee
The Madlanga Commission postponed the testimony of alleged 'Big Five' cartel figure Vusimuzi 'Cat' Matlala to 1 September 2026 and ordered him to file his statement by 29 July, after his counsel Advocate Anneline van den Heever argued that his section 35 constitutional rights as a potential accused had to take precedence over the commission's timetable: she said the defence could not responsibly advise him to testify until it had seen the documents relating to his collapsed plea negotiations and understood the full criminal case against him. Chairperson Mbuyiseli Madlanga, visibly irritated, cut the argument short to focus on 'the broader question' of precedence. The commission then continued cross-examining Investigating Directorate Against Corruption (IDAC) investigator Brian Padayachee on the fraud and corruption case against Crime Intelligence head Lieutenant-General Dumisani Khumalo, with counsel questioning whether the complaint by National Coloured Congress MP Fadiel Adams gave IDAC jurisdiction at all and calling it thin on substance; Madlanga said it was 'highly improbable' that Padayachee could have run the investigation without a copy of the main complaint. Padayachee again rejected MK Party MP Vusi Shongwe's claim of an 'Indian cabal' of Padayachee, IDAC head Advocate Andrea Johnson, senior investigator Suneel Bellochun and Major-General Feroz Khan, telling the commission: 'If such a cabal exists, I am not a party to it.' All allegations are untested; those named are presumed innocent.
- 139
Col Brian Padayachee
With IDAC head Advocate Andrea Johnson's testimony still postponed on medical grounds, senior Investigating Directorate Against Corruption (IDAC) investigator Brian Padayachee took the stand at the Madlanga Commission to defend the directorate against claims that it is being weaponised in police infighting. Padayachee denied allegations - raised through Durban businessman Thoshan Panday - that he orchestrated unlawful telephone interceptions and covert surveillance for more than a decade by misusing interception orders, calling them 'baseless and devoid of merit' and insisting 'the IDAC has sufficient evidence to sustain the charges in the criminal case against Khumalo and other officials at Crime Intelligence'. He rejected the existence of a so-called 'Khan-IDAC cabal' (also put to him as an 'Indian cabal'), saying he had no knowledge of any such group, while confirming he knew suspended Crime Intelligence deputy head Major-General Feroz Khan from their earlier work together in Crime Intelligence. Padayachee also pushed back on KwaZulu-Natal commissioner Lieutenant-General Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi's claims, testifying that Mkhwanazi knew of and had no issue with the arrest of Crime Intelligence head Lieutenant-General Dumisani Khumalo, whose fraud and corruption case he said arose from a complaint laid by National Coloured Congress MP Fadiel Adams. Under questioning he conceded he did not have Adams's original signed affidavit when the case began, relying on an oral briefing and receiving the sworn statement later, which chairperson Mbuyiseli Madlanga probed. Businessman Suleiman Carrim was separately reported to have been ruled medically unfit to testify again, days before a 15 July return date. All allegations are untested; those named are presumed innocent.