Hearing record
Day 22
The commission's fourth-week run of largely protected-witness testimony continued on 29 October 2025, with proceedings shielding identities while the record built out the alleged infiltration of law enforcement by criminal networks.
The day in brief
What you need to know
- Day 22 fell inside the commission's fourth phase of hearings, a stretch dominated by protected and in-camera witnesses whose identities were shielded on the record.
- The commission has repeatedly balanced witness protection against public transparency, ruling on in-camera and identity-protection applications as sensitive testimony proceeded.
- Reporting around this period reflects the commission's continued focus on alleged organised-crime and cartel infiltration of the criminal justice system.
- Because much of the day's evidence was heard under protective measures, the public record for 29 October is thinner than for open-witness days.
- The official transcript for the day is published by the commission and remains the primary record for what was said in the room.
- The day sits between Day 21 (28 October) and Day 23 (30 October) in the commission's continuous hearing schedule at the Bridget Mabandla Justice College in Centurion.
Full coverage
The day, in depth
A week built around protected witnesses
By late October the commission had settled into a rhythm of hearing sensitive witnesses under protective measures, including in-camera sessions and identity shielding. Coverage from this stretch, including SABC News, notes the commission ruling on applications such as the Witness M in-camera request, underscoring how central witness protection had become to the proceedings.
What the commission is examining
The Madlanga Commission is investigating alleged criminality, political interference and corruption in South Africa's criminal justice system, including claims that organised-crime and cartel networks had penetrated law enforcement. The inquiry has been sitting since September 2025 at the Bridget Mabandla Justice College in Centurion.
Our analysis
The bottom line
Days like this one are a reminder that a commission's public value and its duty of protection can pull in opposite directions. When testimony is heard in camera or behind identity shields, the open record narrows, and the archive can only responsibly report what was made public rather than fill gaps with speculation.
The pattern of protective rulings through this period is itself part of the story. It signals that the commission was handling evidence its witnesses considered dangerous to give openly, consistent with the inquiry's framing of alleged cartel infiltration of the state. Readers should treat the thinness of the open record here as a function of protection, not of significance.
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
On the panel
- Justice Mbuyiseli Madlanga (chairperson)