Hearing record
Day 68
Suspended City of Ekurhuleni Head of Human Resources Linda Gxasheka took the stand, categorically denying that she shielded suspended metro police deputy chief Julius Mkhwanazi from accountability or that she failed to act against Ekurhuleni drug-unit officers.
The day in brief
What you need to know
- Linda Gxasheka, suspended Head of Human Resources for the City of Ekurhuleni, began her evidence in the metro-police strand of the inquiry.
- Earlier witnesses had alleged she was part of a clique of senior metro officials who shielded corruption-accused metro police deputy chief Julius Mkhwanazi of the EMPD.
- Julius Mkhwanazi of the Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Police Department is a different person from Lieutenant-General Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi, the KwaZulu-Natal commissioner whose allegations opened the commission; conflating the two is a common error.
- Gxasheka categorically denied the allegations, telling the commission she refuted claims that she supported or participated in a usurpation of powers.
- According to Daily Maverick, she also denied allegations that she failed to resolve a disciplinary matter against six officers from the Ekurhuleni Drug Enforcement unit.
- Her appearance links the commission's work to the Ekurhuleni metro-police corruption strand running alongside the national SAPS allegations.
- All allegations against Gxasheka are untested; she is presumed innocent.
Full coverage
The day, in depth
A categorical denial
Daily Maverick reported that Gxasheka denied protecting Julius Mkhwanazi, the suspended EMPD deputy chief, and rejected claims that she was part of a group shielding him from accountability. She told the commission she refuted the allegations against her.
The six-officer disciplinary matter
Daily Maverick and Central News reported that Gxasheka also addressed allegations that she failed to resolve a disciplinary process against six officers from the Ekurhuleni Drug Enforcement unit, which she denied.
Which Mkhwanazi
The metro official at the centre of this strand is Julius Mkhwanazi of the EMPD, a distinct person from Lieutenant-General Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi, the provincial commissioner whose allegations set the commission in motion. The shared surname has repeatedly caused confusion.
In their words
Key moments from the record
“I refute the allegations that I supported or participated in the usurpation of powers.”
Our analysis
The bottom line
Gxasheka's evidence widens the commission's lens from national policing to municipal law enforcement, showing that the alleged pattern - protecting a compromised officer through administrative inaction - is said to repeat at metro level. The value of her appearance for readers is less any single admission, since she made none of substance, than the mapping of a second, parallel network with its own cast of officials.
Her denial is unambiguous and belongs on the record with equal weight to the accusations. An HR head's failure to finalise a disciplinary matter, if it occurred, can look like protection or can reflect legitimate process failures; the commission's task is to tell those apart, and on this day it did not. Nothing here establishes wrongdoing by anyone named.
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
- Daily Maverick - I refute the allegations: Ekurhuleni HR boss denies protecting Mkhwanazi (26 February 2026) ↗
- Central News - Suspended Ekurhuleni HR Head Linda Gxasheka Returns to Stand at Madlanga Commission (26 February 2026) ↗
- SABC News - Linda Gxasheka returns to the stand at the Madlanga Commission (26 February 2026) ↗