Hearing record
Day 24
Witness: George Raftopoulos. The Gauteng Traffic Police Airwing chief inspector who dispatched a helicopter over Katiso 'KT' Molefe's home during his December 2024 arrest told the commission on 3 November 2025 that he was assisting fellow officers, not interfering in a lawful police operation.
The day in brief
What you need to know
- Chief Inspector George Raftopoulos of the Gauteng Traffic Police Airwing testified that he was the official who dispatched the helicopter seen over Katiso Molefe's home during Molefe's arrest.
- Raftopoulos denied that the helicopter was deployed to interfere with the operation, saying his intention was to assist fellow officers as in previous joint operations.
- Molefe was arrested on 6 December 2024 by the Gauteng Counterintelligence Operations unit with the Political Killings Task Team, in connection with the murder of engineer Armand Swart.
- The helicopter's presence over the scene had previously been raised at the commission as a possible attempt to disrupt a lawful arrest.
- Reporting the same day noted a separate account that the Hawks had 'interfered' in the Molefe arrest, placing Raftopoulos's denial within a contested picture of what happened on the ground.
- The testimony returns the commission to the concrete mechanics of a single high-profile arrest, after a run of protected-witness sittings.
- All individuals named remain presumed innocent; the evidence is testimony before the commission, not a court finding.
Full coverage
The day, in depth
The helicopter operator explains himself
Raftopoulos told the commission he dispatched the Gauteng Traffic Police helicopter that has since drawn allegations of interference in Katiso Molefe's arrest. He rejected the interference claim, saying his only motivation was to support fellow officers on the ground, and that assisting the organised-crime unit in joint operations was not unusual. His account was carried live by several outlets including the Sowetan and The Mail & Guardian.
A contested arrest scene
The Molefe arrest on 6 December 2024, linked to the murder of engineer Armand Swart, has become a recurring thread at the commission. Reporting on 3 November set Raftopoulos's denial against separate evidence that elite-unit officers sought to intervene, leaving the commission to weigh competing characterisations of the same event.
Our analysis
The bottom line
Raftopoulos's testimony narrows a broad inquiry down to a single, testable question: why was a traffic-police helicopter hovering over a murder suspect's home during his arrest? His answer, that it was routine mutual aid, is plausible on its face, but it sits uncomfortably beside other accounts suggesting the arrest drew unusual attention from multiple units. The commission's task is to reconcile those versions.
For readers, the value of a day like this is that it is falsifiable. Flight logs, deployment authorisations and radio records can corroborate or undercut the explanation in a way that protected-witness narrative cannot. That makes Raftopoulos's evidence a useful anchor point in a case otherwise built on contested characterisations of intent.
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)
Sources
- Sowetan - WATCH LIVE | Chief inspector George Raftopoulos takes the stand at Madlanga Commission (3 November 2025) ↗
- Mail & Guardian - Gauteng traffic police deny interfering in Katiso Molefe's arrest (3 November 2025) ↗
- Jacaranda FM - Police Airwing chief denies interfering in Katiso Molefe operation (3 November 2025) ↗