Hearing record
Day 29
The EMPD chapter deepens as the commission hears that suspended deputy chief Brigadier Julius Mkhwanazi has been implicated in a string of serious crimes, extending the Ekurhuleni metro-police evidence into more grave territory.
The day in brief
What you need to know
- On 10 November 2025 the commission continued its EMPD hearings, with evidence that suspended deputy chief Brigadier Julius Mkhwanazi had been implicated in a string of serious crimes.
- The day built on Mapiyeye's testimony from the preceding sittings, sharpening the allegations against the acting metro-police chief.
- The evidence kept the focus on Ekurhuleni's metro police, where questions of appointment, discipline and alleged criminality have converged.
- It set up the direction of the following days, with EMPD governance remaining under sustained scrutiny.
- Julius Mkhwanazi is a distinct person from KZN commissioner Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi despite the shared surname.
- All allegations aired are untested; Julius Mkhwanazi is presumed innocent and has not been convicted of any offence.
Full coverage
The day, in depth
A widening set of allegations
YFM reported that the commission heard the EMPD deputy chief was implicated in a string of serious crimes, escalating the metro-police evidence beyond appointment irregularities into more serious conduct. The day extended the Ekurhuleni chapter opened by suspended chief Isaac Mapiyeye's testimony the previous week.
Ekurhuleni stays in the frame
The 10 November sitting kept the commission's attention on the internal workings of the EMPD, where disciplinary disputes, promotion battles and now alleged criminality had become entangled. The allegations against Julius Mkhwanazi remain untested before the commission and he is presumed innocent.
Our analysis
The bottom line
Day 29 marks the point where the EMPD story stops being about paperwork and promotions and starts being about alleged criminality. That escalation matters because it moves the metro-police chapter closer to the commission's core question of whether law-enforcement structures were turned to improper ends. But escalation is not proof, and a 'string of serious crimes' framed in testimony is a set of allegations awaiting evidence, cross-examination and, where relevant, the courts.
The commission's task from here is to distinguish the substance of these claims from the workplace war that produced them. Julius Mkhwanazi has not answered these allegations on the same platform, and the presumption of innocence applies with full force. What Day 29 shows is momentum in the EMPD line of inquiry, not a verdict on any individual within it.
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)