Madlanga Commission hearing record
Day 1 of the Madlanga Commission
Witness: Lieutenant-General Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi
Evidence led by Advocate Mahlape Sello SC
The commission opens at the Brigitte Mabandla Justice College in Irene, Centurion, with the man whose July 2025 media briefing set the whole inquiry in motion. Lt-Gen Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi takes the stand to lay out, under oath, his allegation that criminal syndicates have infiltrated South Africa's police, prosecution and political structures.
The day in brief
What you need to know
- Justice Mbuyiseli Madlanga formally opens the Commission of Inquiry into Criminality, Political Interference and Corruption in the Criminal Justice System, established by President Cyril Ramaphosa after Mkhwanazi's 6 July 2025 allegations.
- Mkhwanazi is the first witness, chosen because his public claims triggered the inquiry; his evidence is led by Advocate Mahlape Sello SC.
- He alleges that criminal syndicates have infiltrated police, prosecutorial, intelligence and political structures, compromising the criminal justice system.
- He tells the commission the KwaZulu-Natal Political Killings Task Team (PKTT) was successful and disagrees with the view that it added no value.
- He alleges suspended Police Minister Senzo Mchunu may have been 'influenced' when ordering the PKTT's disbandment.
- Deputy National Commissioner Shadrack Sibiya is among the senior officials named in the opening testimony.
- Strict security measures were put in place around the venue ahead of Mkhwanazi's appearance.
Full coverage
The day, in depth
A briefing becomes a commission
Corruption Watch and SAnews reported that the hearings opened on Wednesday 17 September 2025 with Mkhwanazi as the first witness. His earlier public allegations, made at a July 2025 media briefing, were the direct cause of President Ramaphosa establishing the inquiry. Day 1 was devoted to setting institutional context, timelines and the alleged patterns of interference before the commission.
The Political Killings Task Team dispute
According to Corruption Watch and The Citizen, Mkhwanazi told the commission he disagreed with then police minister Senzo Mchunu's view that the KZN Political Killings Task Team brought no value, arguing it had in fact been successful. He said he believed Mchunu may have been influenced in the decision to disband it. Mchunu is suspended and has not been found guilty of any offence.
Naming senior officials
IOL and Daily Maverick's guide to the main players noted that Mkhwanazi's allegations reached into the top ranks of the SAPS, including Deputy National Commissioner Shadrack Sibiya. All those named are entitled to the presumption of innocence and will have the opportunity to respond as the commission proceeds.
Our analysis
The bottom line
Day 1 mattered less for any single revelation than for what it established procedurally: the man who forced the inquiry into being was now repeating his claims under oath, where they could be tested. That shift, from a televised briefing to sworn evidence led by senior counsel, is what gives the allegations their weight going forward.
The framing Mkhwanazi chose is worth noting. By centring the disbandment of the Political Killings Task Team, he tied a specific, documentable administrative decision to his broader thesis of infiltration. That gives the commission a concrete thread to pull on rather than an abstract claim of corruption, and it is a claim that later witnesses would be asked to corroborate or dispute.
It is important to stress that at this stage these are allegations. Those named, including the suspended minister and serving generals, have not been found to have done anything unlawful, and the commission's task is precisely to weigh the evidence rather than to accept the opening witness's account at face value.
Analysis is the archive’s own comment on the public proceedings, grounded in the record above. It weighs the evidence and the process; questions of individual guilt are for the courts and the commission to decide. Everyone named is presumed innocent.
On the record
Who testified this day
Follow the threads
Who Lieutenant-General Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi connects to
Lieutenant General Seswantsho Godfrey Lebeya
The 6 December 2024 arrest of Katiso Molefe was carried out by the KwaZulu-Natal Political Killings Task Team, the unit at the centre of Mkhwanazi July 2025 allegations. On Day 168 the retired Hawks national head told the commission the Hawks presence at the scene was verification of an impostor report, not interference. Untested; no finding has been made.
View profile →Named as the go-between in an alleged bid to implicate himMavuso Ntandane
Lieutenant-Colonel Deena Govender told the commission on Day 164 that Ntandane, described as close to Senzo Mchunu, pressed him to give evidence naming Mkhwanazi as the source of instructions for the KwaZulu-Natal shootings. The allegation is untested.
View profile →Subject of his allegationsSenzo Mchunu
Mkhwanazi alleged Mchunu disbanded the political killings task team to shield politically connected interests.
View profile →Corroborated byLieutenant-General Fannie Masemola
National Commissioner Masemola's early testimony largely supported Mkhwanazi's account of the task-team disbandment.
View profile →Implicated in his evidenceLieutenant-General Shadrack Sibiya
Mkhwanazi named Sibiya among the senior officers he alleged interfered with investigations.
View profile →Named in his evidenceOupa 'Brown' Mogotsi
Mkhwanazi described Mogotsi as a conduit between the minister and an alleged cartel figure.
View profile →Distinct person, same surnameJulius Mkhwanazi
Frequently confused with him; Julius Mkhwanazi is the suspended EMPD deputy chief, an entirely different person.
View profile →Cited his prosecution as police infightingLieutenant-General Dumisani Khumalo
Returning on Day 138 (13 July 2026), Mkhwanazi told the commission IDAC was being used by senior police in internal fights and pointed to the criminal charge against the Crime Intelligence head. IDAC investigator Brian Padayachee disputed his account. Competing accounts on the record, not findings.
View profile →The IPID evidence returns to his provinceLen Barnabas John
The commission exists because of Mkhwanazi's July 2025 allegations about criminal infiltration of policing in KwaZulu-Natal. On Day 157 IPID's provincial investigations chief Len John gave the first sustained account of what SAPS task teams in that province have been doing, covering 149 deaths between April 2023 and 31 May 2026. Untested; no finding either way.
View profile →Meeting confirmed by Matlala, contents withheldVusimuzi 'Cat' Matlala
On Day 160 Matlala confirmed he had met Mkhwanazi - reportedly in 2025, about the Medicare24 contract and a warrant of arrest - but claimed the privilege against self-incrimination over what was discussed. Mkhwanazi has denied any improper relationship with Matlala; untested either way.
View profile →The man he accused of misusing Crime Intelligence materialFadiel Adams
In his September 2025 evidence Mkhwanazi alleged that MP Fadiel Adams had obtained Crime Intelligence information he was not entitled to and used it recklessly to pursue charges against members of the Political Killings Task Team. The commission's Rule 3 notice of 3 October 2025 asked Adams to answer those allegations; Adams gave evidence over Days 162 to 164 (19 to 21 August 2026), which was taken up with his correspondence, his credibility and the section 27 referral rather than the substance of Mkhwanazi's allegation. It remains unanswered on the record. Untested; both presumed innocent.
View profile →The acting national commissioner who is said to have demanded an explanation from himLieutenant-General Puleng Dimpane
Per the Sowetan, Govender testified on Day 170 that Dimpane gave Mkhwanazi seven days to explain his June 2026 Pretoria media briefing, held while Crime Intelligence head Lieutenant-General Dumisani Khumalo was reporting to Brooklyn police station on an IDAC warrant. An internal SAPS process described by a third party from the witness box. Untested, and no allegation of wrongdoing against either officer.
View profile →The officer who says he was pressured to implicate himLieutenant-Colonel Deenadayalan Govender
On Day 164 Lieutenant-Colonel Deenadayalan Govender, the Hawks officer at the centre of the KwaZulu-Natal task-team allegations, testified that he was approached and pressured to give evidence implicating Mkhwanazi, and that suspended Police Minister Senzo Mchunu instructed him on a call to tell the commission that the police shootings had been carried out on Mkhwanazi's instructions. On Day 170 he put the figure at 172 extra-judicial shootings, dated the meeting to 20 August 2026 and said he recorded it: 'I know the minister's voice, I know it was him.' He also testified that acting national commissioner Lieutenant-General Puleng Dimpane had given Mkhwanazi seven days to explain the June 2026 Khumalo briefing, and that Mkhwanazi told him 'you were not supposed to know about this'. Untested; Mchunu denies it and all named are presumed innocent.
View profile →In the room & on the record
Counsel, the panel and sources
Evidence led by
- Advocate Mahlape Sello SC
On the panel
- Justice Mbuyiseli Madlanga (chairperson)
Sources
- Corruption Watch - The Madlanga commission's first week: a brief summary (Sep 2025) ↗
- SAnews - Madlanga Commission: Lt. General Mkhwanazi gives evidence (17 Sep 2025) ↗
- The Citizen - Madlanga commission: What you may have missed so far (Sep 2025) ↗
- IOL - WATCH: Lt-Gen Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi testifies at Madlanga Commission (17 Sep 2025) ↗