Hearing record

Day 146

Witness: Advocate Andrea Johnson

Evidence led by Advocate Mahlape Sello SC

A third day on the stand for the IDAC head: Andrea Johnson gives evidence on the section 27 affidavit that led to Lieutenant-General Dumisani Khumalo's arrest, and on the whistleblower claim that she shielded General Feroz Khan in 2018.

Awaiting portrait

The day in brief

What you need to know

  • Johnson resumed a third consecutive day, giving evidence on the section 27 referral affidavit that founded the arrest of Crime Intelligence head Lieutenant-General Dumisani Khumalo and six other officials.
  • She addressed the involvement of senior investigator Suneel Bellochun in the Khumalo matter.
  • She testified that Khumalo's arrest was unrelated to the work of the Political Killings Task Team (PKTT).
  • The day extended the commission's three-day scrutiny of whether IDAC had the mandate and the evidence to bring the Crime Intelligence prosecutions.

Full coverage

The day, in depth

Day three: the affidavit behind the arrests

Advocate Andrea Johnson, head of the Investigating Directorate Against Corruption (IDAC), returned for a third consecutive day at the Madlanga Commission. Her evidence turned to the section 27 referral affidavit - the founding document that led to the June 2025 arrest of Crime Intelligence head Lieutenant-General Dumisani Khumalo and six other officials over the allegedly irregular appointment of Brigadier Dineo Mokwele. Across her three days the commission has pressed a single underlying question: did IDAC have both the statutory mandate and the evidentiary foundation to bring these prosecutions at all, a question the panel had already put sharply to IDAC investigator Brian Padayachee over Days 139 to 141.

Bellochun, and the PKTT question

Johnson addressed the role of senior IDAC investigator Suneel Bellochun in the Khumalo matter - Bellochun being one of the officials MK Party MP Vusi Shongwe had named as part of an alleged 'Indian cabal' said to link IDAC figures to Major-General Feroz Khan, an allegation both Padayachee and Johnson have rejected. She also testified that Khumalo's arrest was unrelated to the work of the Political Killings Task Team, the unit whose activities sit elsewhere in the commission's inquiry. This is the commission testing how the Crime Intelligence case was assembled; it is not a finding against anyone named.

Our analysis

The bottom line

By her third day, the shape of Johnson's evidence was clear: a directorate defending both its jurisdiction and its judgement. Having conceded the day before that IDAC erred on whether the Khumalo matter fell within its mandate, her task on this day was to hold the line that the arrests themselves were evidence-led and not, as critics allege, a weapon in a police turf war.

This day was still under way and drew thinner independent reporting than her dramatic first two appearances, so we have kept our account to what the record and early coverage support. The fuller measure of Johnson's testimony - and whether the commission accepts that IDAC's Crime Intelligence prosecutions rest on more than 'sparse facts' - is a question for the commission's report, not for us.

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.

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)
  • Advocate Sesi Baloyi SC
  • Advocate Sandile Khumalo SC