When & where it sits
Madlanga Commission schedule
When and where the Madlanga Commission of Inquiry sits, how many days it has heard, the latest sitting dates, and how to follow each day without the 8-to-10-hour live feed.
How it sits
When and where the Commission sits
The Madlanga Commission of Inquiry sits in Pretoria, at the Brigitte Mabandla Justice College, where retired Justice Mbuyiseli Madlanga and the commissioners receive evidence led by the evidence leaders. Hearing days run on weekdays during each block, typically eight to ten hours, with tea and lunch adjournments.
146 sitting days are recorded here so far. The most recent is Day 146 on 23 Jul 2026. Exact upcoming dates are set and announced by the Commission; this page updates as new days are added.
Inside a sitting
How a Madlanga Commission hearing day runs
A typical hearing day opens with the chairperson confirming the day’s witness, who takes the oath. An evidence leader then takes the witness through a sworn statement paragraph by paragraph, putting the supporting exhibits - cellphone downloads, bank records, official documents - on screen as they go.
The commissioners interject with their own questions throughout, and proceedings break for tea mid-morning and for lunch around 13:00 before resuming into the afternoon. A full day can run eight to ten hours, and where a witness is not finished their evidence carries over to the next sitting day - which is why following the latest updates day to day matters.
Latest sittings
Recent Madlanga Commission hearing days
Madlanga Commission - Day 146
Advocate Andrea Johnson resumed a third day of testimony at the Madlanga Commission, giving evidence on the section 27 referral affidavit that led to the arrest of Crime Intelligence head Lieutenant-General Dumisani Khumalo and six other officials. She addressed the involvement of senior investigator Suneel Bellochun in the Khumalo matter and testified that Khumalo's arrest was unrelated to the work of the Political Killings Task Team. The day continued the commission's scrutiny, over her three appearances, of whether IDAC had the mandate and the evidence to bring the Crime Intelligence prosecutions, and of the separate whistleblower allegation that Johnson shielded Major-General Feroz Khan in 2018. All allegations are untested; Johnson, Khumalo and Khan are presumed innocent.
Madlanga Commission - Day 145
IDAC head Advocate Andrea Johnson returned for a second day at the Madlanga Commission, where evidence leader Advocate Mahlape Sello SC and the commissioners pressed her on whether the directorate had overreached in the Crime Intelligence case. Johnson conceded she had made an error in concluding that the corruption matter against Lieutenant-General Dumisani Khumalo fell within IDAC's mandate, an admission over the legal test applied to a section 27 referral. She pushed back on the suggestion that IDAC had improperly 'solicited' an affidavit from National Coloured Congress MP Fadiel Adams - 'I don't agree with solicited; we're not supposed to solicit' - though it emerged that IDAC investigator Dylan Perumal had told Adams the directorate could not proceed without a specific affidavit from him; Adams's complaint helped trigger the 2025 arrests of seven Crime Intelligence officers, including Khumalo. Commissioner Advocate Sesi Baloyi SC put it to Johnson that IDAC had misused its power by taking intrusive steps against the officers too quickly and without a proper legislative basis, to which Johnson repeatedly answered 'no comment'. Proceedings adjourned about an hour early after Johnson said medication she was taking was having a debilitating effect. All allegations are untested; those named are presumed innocent.
Madlanga Commission - Day 144
The head of the Investigating Directorate Against Corruption (IDAC), Advocate Andrea Johnson, finally took the stand at the Madlanga Commission after her July postponements, and used her first day to answer the whistleblower evidence against her while disclosing a death threat of her own. Johnson told the commission she received a threatening SMS in the days before Crime Intelligence head Lieutenant-General Dumisani Khumalo's arrest on 26 June 2025 - the first death threat of her prosecutorial career - which named her and colleagues and said 'get body bags ready'; it came from an unregistered SIM and the sender was never identified. She denied any political interference in the Khumalo case, said IDAC's investigations are 'driven by evidence, not politics' and predate her taking office, and rejected being part of an alleged 'Khan-IDAC cabal'. On the central allegation - that in 2018, as an NPA prosecutor, she caused Brigadier Leonora Phetlhe's assault-case docket to be leaked to Major-General Feroz Khan - Johnson said her 'memory needed jogging', described Khan as 'very affable' and acknowledged a past social acquaintance, including his 50th birthday, but said they had had no contact for about a year and a half after she distanced herself over allegations linking him to individuals connected to two murders. She confirmed the allegations against her and Khan sit in an NPA docket that will decide whether she is prosecuted, and invoked her constitutional right against self-incrimination on the Khan-related questions. All allegations are untested; Johnson and Khan are presumed innocent.
Madlanga Commission - Day 143
The Madlanga Commission sat entirely behind closed doors as the anonymous businessman known only as 'Witness M' continued the in-camera testimony he began under the 8 July ruling that granted him a private hearing on safety grounds. Witness M is giving evidence on one of the major 2021 cocaine busts under investigation - the consignment routed from Durban that was later compromised - and his affidavit is understood to touch on politically exposed individuals, organised-crime families, drug syndicates and law-enforcement officers. Because the session was closed, no public evidence was heard; the commission indicated open hearings would resume the following day. Nothing said in camera is a finding, and anyone who may be named is presumed innocent.
Madlanga Commission - Day 142
The Madlanga Commission turned back to the mishandling of a major drug seizure, hearing from KwaZulu-Natal-based Warrant Officer Mbongeleni Felix Mpangase - one of the officers on the June 2021 operation that recovered more than 540 kilograms of cocaine, with a street value put at about R200 million, concealed in a shipping container that had arrived at Durban port from Brazil and was intercepted at a depot in Isipingo. Mpangase came under sustained questioning from the commissioners, who accused him of making false or misleading entries in official records connected to the seizure and put it to him that the scene was not properly secured, that the cocaine was not stored in evidence bags and that the consignment was moved to a facility more than 100 kilometres away. He conceded he had no previous experience of large-scale container drug interceptions and that mistakes were made, but maintained he was following the instructions of his superiors and that there was no criminal intent on his part. The commission has heard that the cocaine was later stolen from a Hawks storage facility, amid allegations that officials may have colluded with drug traffickers - the same trafficking saga the in-camera 'Witness M' is testifying about. All allegations are untested and those named are presumed innocent.
Madlanga Commission - Day 141
Investigating Directorate Against Corruption (IDAC) investigator Brian Padayachee concluded a third day in the hot seat on the fraud and corruption case the directorate brought against Crime Intelligence head Lieutenant-General Dumisani Khumalo and co-accused over the allegedly irregular appointment of Brigadier Dineo Mokwele - a former BMW employee holding a mechatronics-engineering diploma and an industrial-engineering degree - to a brigadier-level post running Crime Intelligence's Technical Support Services unit. IDAC's theory that the appointment was an 'attempt to capture Crime Intelligence' met sustained scepticism across the three days: chairperson Mbuyiseli Madlanga had called the reasoning a 'quantum leap in logic', noting that SAPS regularly appoints civilians with specialist expertise and that a lack of policing experience does not by itself point to criminal conduct, while Commissioner Advocate Sesi Baloyi SC put it that National Coloured Congress MP Fadiel Adams's founding affidavit contained no allegation of corruption and read more like a human-resources dispute than a crime. IOL reported Padayachee's evidence as amounting to Mokwele being arrested over conduct investigators believed she might commit in future - he could not say when the alleged offence would occur - and the commission noted the charge dated the alleged offence to October 2024 although Mokwele only signed her contract that December, her appointment taking effect on 1 November 2024. On this day the evidence leaders walked the documentary record showing how the complaint reached IDAC within weeks, and the Mail & Guardian reported the commission heard IDAC had charged Khumalo 'on sparse facts'. All allegations are untested; Khumalo, Mokwele and those named are presumed innocent.
Madlanga Commission - Day 140
The Madlanga Commission postponed the testimony of alleged 'Big Five' cartel figure Vusimuzi 'Cat' Matlala to 1 September 2026 and ordered him to file his statement by 29 July, after his counsel Advocate Anneline van den Heever argued that his section 35 constitutional rights as a potential accused had to take precedence over the commission's timetable: she said the defence could not responsibly advise him to testify until it had seen the documents relating to his collapsed plea negotiations and understood the full criminal case against him. Chairperson Mbuyiseli Madlanga, visibly irritated, cut the argument short to focus on 'the broader question' of precedence. The commission then continued cross-examining Investigating Directorate Against Corruption (IDAC) investigator Brian Padayachee on the fraud and corruption case against Crime Intelligence head Lieutenant-General Dumisani Khumalo, with counsel questioning whether the complaint by National Coloured Congress MP Fadiel Adams gave IDAC jurisdiction at all and calling it thin on substance; Madlanga said it was 'highly improbable' that Padayachee could have run the investigation without a copy of the main complaint. Padayachee again rejected MK Party MP Vusi Shongwe's claim of an 'Indian cabal' of Padayachee, IDAC head Advocate Andrea Johnson, senior investigator Suneel Bellochun and Major-General Feroz Khan, telling the commission: 'If such a cabal exists, I am not a party to it.' All allegations are untested; those named are presumed innocent.
Madlanga Commission - Day 139
With IDAC head Advocate Andrea Johnson's testimony still postponed on medical grounds, senior Investigating Directorate Against Corruption (IDAC) investigator Brian Padayachee took the stand at the Madlanga Commission to defend the directorate against claims that it is being weaponised in police infighting. Padayachee denied allegations - raised through Durban businessman Thoshan Panday - that he orchestrated unlawful telephone interceptions and covert surveillance for more than a decade by misusing interception orders, calling them 'baseless and devoid of merit' and insisting 'the IDAC has sufficient evidence to sustain the charges in the criminal case against Khumalo and other officials at Crime Intelligence'. He rejected the existence of a so-called 'Khan-IDAC cabal' (also put to him as an 'Indian cabal'), saying he had no knowledge of any such group, while confirming he knew suspended Crime Intelligence deputy head Major-General Feroz Khan from their earlier work together in Crime Intelligence. Padayachee also pushed back on KwaZulu-Natal commissioner Lieutenant-General Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi's claims, testifying that Mkhwanazi knew of and had no issue with the arrest of Crime Intelligence head Lieutenant-General Dumisani Khumalo, whose fraud and corruption case he said arose from a complaint laid by National Coloured Congress MP Fadiel Adams. Under questioning he conceded he did not have Adams's original signed affidavit when the case began, relying on an oral briefing and receiving the sworn statement later, which chairperson Mbuyiseli Madlanga probed. Businessman Suleiman Carrim was separately reported to have been ruled medically unfit to testify again, days before a 15 July return date. All allegations are untested; those named are presumed innocent.
Madlanga Commission - Day 138
IDAC head Advocate Andrea Johnson was scheduled to testify before the Madlanga Commission to answer the whistleblower evidence that, as an NPA prosecutor in 2018, she caused an assault-case docket to be leaked to Major-General Feroz Khan, but her testimony was postponed after her counsel told the commission she had been rushed to hospital that morning with undisclosed health issues. Chairperson Mbuyiseli Madlanga dismissed her medical certificate as 'useless', saying such certificates 'give no information whatsoever', and no new date was set. Her no-show drew scrutiny from President Cyril Ramaphosa, who appointed her. With Johnson unavailable, no witness evidence was heard on the docket-leak allegations. All allegations are untested; those named are presumed innocent.
Madlanga Commission - Day 137
Retired Hawks Colonel Kobus Roelofse - one of four police officers who testified this day - told the Madlanga Commission that the head of the Investigating Directorate Against Corruption (IDAC), Advocate Andrea Johnson, interfered in a 2018 assault investigation in which suspended SAPS Crime Intelligence deputy head Major-General Feroz Khan was the suspect. The evidence was that, as an NPA prosecutor, Johnson caused the contents of the police docket - arising from Brigadier Leonora Phetlhe's complaint that Khan assaulted her with a pen at Crime Intelligence headquarters on 26 June 2018 - to be emailed to a Crime Intelligence officer (who testified as a protected witness) on 4 July 2018, comprising 12 images and an audio file of the docket; the officer printed them and handed them to Khan before he had given his warning statement, which Roelofse said let Khan tailor his account. Hawks officer Mark McLean also testified that then National Director of Public Prosecutions Advocate Shamila Batohi allegedly blocked the Hawks' probe into Johnson. The commission ruled that two protected witnesses, 'Witness N' and 'Witness O', would give parts of their evidence in camera on safety grounds. All allegations are untested; Khan, Johnson and Batohi are presumed innocent and have not answered them before the commission.
Questions
Madlanga Commission schedule: common questions
When does the Madlanga Commission sit?
The Madlanga Commission sits on weekdays during its hearing blocks, usually from mid-morning with a tea and lunch adjournment, often running eight to ten hours. The latest recorded sitting was Day 146 on 23 Jul 2026. Exact upcoming dates are set by the Commission and announced on its official roll.
Where is the Madlanga Commission held?
Hearings are held in Pretoria, at the Brigitte Mabandla Justice College, where the Chairperson and commissioners receive evidence.
How many days has the Madlanga Commission sat?
146 hearing days are recorded in this archive so far, the most recent being Day 146 (23 Jul 2026).
Can I follow the Madlanga Commission live or today?
Yes. This archive turns each day's testimony into a readable record. See who is on the stand now on the home page, the newest hearing days and documents on the Latest page, and the full day-by-day chronicle under Hearings.
Covering 11 months of hearings, this is part of The Madlanga Commission public-record archive - follow the latest day, the case files, and the witnesses.