Hearing record

Day 151

30 July 2026

Evidence led by Advocate Mahlape Sello SC

Andrea Johnson's own prosecutor takes the stand and plays the tape: a recorded call in which the then IDAC head allegedly tells her to leave the country rather than testify, and an account of a suspect list handed over on a pinkish-purple sheet.

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Awaiting portrait

The day in brief

What you need to know

Advocate Drushantha Ramsamy, a state advocate inside the Investigating Directorate Against Corruption, testified against her own former head - the prosecutor who worked the Crime Intelligence docket giving evidence about how it was assembled.
The commission played her recording of a 26 July telephone call with Advocate Andrea Johnson, in which Johnson allegedly said of the inquiry 'it's going to be a shitshow' and, on what Ramsamy should do if summoned, 'if they call you, leave the country'.
Ramsamy said IDAC staff nicknamed Johnson 'Flip-Flop, Knee-Jerk' because her instructions changed through the day after she consulted chief investigator Dylan Perumal.
She testified that Johnson personally drove an investigation known internally as 'Project Diversion' which targeted national commissioner General Fannie Masemola and Crime Intelligence head Lieutenant-General Dumisani Khumalo, describing it as an 'orchestrated attack' on the two police leaders.
She said Johnson handed her a list of suspects on a pinkish-purple sheet on 5 December 2024 with the words 'these are the suspects, Chief and I discussed who is to be included'.
When a document put before the commission differed from the section 27 affidavit Johnson had given her on that same date, Ramsamy said, 'my heart dropped to my stomach'.
She told the commission it was easy inside IDAC to manipulate statements and to decide who the suspects were, how investigations should proceed, who the witnesses would be and what they would say.
The same day, Justice Minister Mmamoloko Kubayi suspended Perumal and NDPP Advocate Andy Mothibi suspended senior investigator Brian Padayachee and investigator Suneel Bellochun, pending disciplinary processes; IDAC was given six months to reform.
Ramsamy's evidence was part-heard; she was set down to resume the following Tuesday.

Full coverage

The day, in depth

The tape

The single piece of evidence that carried the day was a cellphone recording Ramsamy made of a telephone conversation with Johnson on 26 July 2026 - the same Sunday Johnson wrote to the National Director of Public Prosecutions asking to be released from her post within twenty-four hours. Played in open session, the recording captured Johnson describing the commission in terms nobody in her position would choose for the record: 'it's going to be a shitshow'. Asked what she should do if the commission called her, Ramsamy said Johnson's answer was 'if they call you, leave the country'. A third exchange captured Johnson dismissing a legal point Ramsamy had raised with 'this is Basic Law 101, I'm surprised you don't know it'. The evidence leaders' framing was that Johnson had sought to devise a way for Ramsamy not to testify. That is an allegation, made by one participant in a private conversation which the other did not know was being recorded, and Johnson has not yet answered it from the stand.

'Project Diversion' and the pinkish-purple sheet

Beyond the recording, Ramsamy's account went to the origin of the Crime Intelligence prosecution. She testified that Johnson personally spearheaded an investigation staff called 'Project Diversion' which was aimed at national commissioner General Fannie Masemola and Crime Intelligence head Lieutenant-General Dumisani Khumalo, and she characterised it as an orchestrated attack on the two men. Her most concrete evidence was a date and an object: on 5 December 2024 Johnson handed her a list of suspects written on a pinkish-purple sheet of paper, saying 'these are the suspects, Chief and I discussed who is to be included'. If accepted, that sequence reverses the order a lawful investigation is meant to follow - evidence first, suspects after. It has not been accepted; it is one witness's account and Johnson is entitled to answer it.

'My heart dropped to my stomach'

The commission has spent three weeks on documents that do not match each other. Ramsamy added another. She had received a section 27 referral affidavit from Johnson on 5 December 2024 - the instrument that founds an IDAC investigation. When a version of that document was put before the commission during Johnson's own evidence, she said it differed from the one she had been given, and described her reaction plainly: 'my heart dropped to my stomach'. Set beside the disputed 'A1' statement heard on Day 148, the pattern the evidence leaders are building is about the paperwork at the foundation of the prosecution rather than the conduct of any single officer.

The nickname and what it was describing

Ramsamy told the commission that staff inside IDAC called Johnson 'Flip-Flop, Knee-Jerk'. The nickname is not the point; her explanation of it is. She said instructions would change repeatedly through a single day, and that they changed after Johnson consulted chief investigator Dylan Perumal - the same official whose 'A1' statement two of his own colleagues disputed on tape a week earlier. The picture she gave was of a directorate where the standard operating procedures Johnson had told the commission did not exist were, in Ramsamy's account, being deviated from constantly, and where it was easy to shape statements, suspects, witnesses and what those witnesses would say.

The consequences, the same day

While Ramsamy was giving evidence, the executive acted. Justice Minister Mmamoloko Kubayi announced the suspension of IDAC chief investigator Dylan Perumal; National Director of Public Prosecutions Advocate Andy Mothibi suspended senior investigator Brian Padayachee - the man who defended the Crime Intelligence case across Days 139 to 141 - and investigator Suneel Bellochun. All three suspensions are pending disciplinary processes, and a suspension is a precautionary employment step, not a finding. Kubayi and Mothibi also announced a six-month reset of the directorate: skills and lifestyle audits of all 212 employees due by 14 August, a review of IDAC cases currently before the courts, and a review of its standard operating procedures. Kubayi's own words for it were 'a comprehensive reset of IDAC aimed at rebranding and repositioning the directorate'.

In their words

Key moments from the record

“If they call you, leave the country.”

Johnson, on the recording, on what Ramsamy should do. A cellphone recording of a 26 July 2026 call between Advocate Andrea Johnson and IDAC state advocate Drushantha Ramsamy, played at the commission on Day 151. Johnson has not yet answered the allegation from the stand; it is untested and she is presumed innocent.

“It's going to be a shitshow.”

Johnson, on the same call, on the commission. From the same recording, played in open session on 30 July 2026. Untested.

“These are the suspects. Chief and I discussed who is to be included.”

Ramsamy on how the suspects were chosen. Advocate Drushantha Ramsamy's account of Advocate Andrea Johnson handing her a suspect list on a pinkish-purple sheet on 5 December 2024. 'Chief' is a reference to IDAC chief investigator Dylan Perumal. Untested; all named are presumed innocent.

“My heart dropped to my stomach.”

Ramsamy on seeing the affidavit again. Advocate Drushantha Ramsamy, describing her reaction when a section 27 document put before the commission differed from the affidavit she says she was given on 5 December 2024. Untested.

Our analysis

The bottom line

For eleven months the Madlanga Commission has heard police officers accuse other police officers. Day 151 is the first time a serving prosecutor inside the anti-corruption directorate has taken the stand to accuse her own former head, and the difference matters: Ramsamy is not describing what she heard about the Crime Intelligence case, she is describing being handed it.

The recording is the reason this day travelled. A private call, made by the person who would soon be summoned, recorded by the person she was allegedly advising to leave the country. It is untested and Johnson has not answered it - but it is the kind of evidence that is very hard to characterise away, which is presumably why the evidence leaders moved within twenty-four hours to signal a Rule 3 notice and a recall.

Read together with the fortnight before it, the shape of the IDAC evidence is now clear. Day 141: the commission cannot see why the case was brought. Day 148: IDAC's own officials dispute the founding statement, and the NPA withdraws the charges. Day 150: Johnson concludes six days. Day 151: a prosecutor inside the unit says the suspects were chosen first. Each step moves the allegation upward, from the file to the investigator to the director.

The counterweight belongs on the record too. Ramsamy is one witness with her own position to protect; she recorded a colleague without consent; and the three investigators suspended this week - Perumal, Padayachee and Bellochun - have answered nothing yet, because none of them has finished giving evidence. Nothing on this day is a finding. Everyone named is presumed innocent, and the commission has reached no conclusion about any of them.

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

Testified · part-heard

Advocate Drushantha Ramsamy

State advocate, Investigating Directorate Against Corruption (IDAC)

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Follow the threads

Who Advocate Drushantha Ramsamy connects to

Her former head; she testified against her

Advocate Andrea Johnson

Ramsamy worked under Johnson at IDAC on the Crime Intelligence docket. On Day 151 she played a recording of a 26 July call in which Johnson allegedly advised her to leave the country rather than testify, and gave evidence that Johnson drove 'Project Diversion'. Johnson has not yet answered; untested, both presumed innocent.

View profile →Prosecuted the case against him, then testified about how it was built

Lieutenant-General Dumisani Khumalo

Ramsamy was a state advocate on the docket that charged the Crime Intelligence head. Her Day 151 evidence was that the suspects were settled by the directorate's leadership before the case was made. The NPA provisionally withdrew the charges on 27 July 2026. Untested; all presumed innocent.

View profile →IDAC colleague on the same docket

Colonel Brian Padayachee

Both worked the Crime Intelligence matter - Padayachee as lead investigator who defended it across Days 139-141, Ramsamy as the state advocate who has since given evidence about how it was assembled. Padayachee was suspended on 30 July 2026 pending a disciplinary process; a suspension is not a finding and he is presumed innocent.

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Related case files

Case file · IDAC vs Crime Intelligence

Khumalo / Mokwele appointment

IDAC charged a Crime Intelligence boss over a civilian's appointment. Ten days of testimony left the commission asking what the crime actually was - and by the end the prosecuting authority had withdrawn the case, IDAC's head had resigned, one of her own prosecutors had testified against her, and three senior investigators were suspended.

Read the case file →

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

Sources

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