Witness archive
Everyone before the commission
Profiles are added as witnesses appear and as the public record grows. This page lists people who have given evidence, ordered by most recent appearance. People who are named or implicated but have not yet testified are listed separately below.
Lt-Gen Seswantsho Godfrey Lebeya
National Head, Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation (Hawks), 2018 to 2025
The retired national head of the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation, the specialised unit known as the Hawks, which he led from 2018 until his retirement in 2025. He came to the Madlanga Commission's record long before he came to its witness box. From October 2025 a succession of police witnesses described the night of 6 December 2024, when members of the KwaZulu-Natal Political Killings Task Team and the Special Task Force arrested murder-accused businessman Katiso 'KT' Molefe at his Sandhurst home and Hawks units unexpectedly arrived; in November 2025 Major General Kadwa testified that Lebeya had telephoned him to ask whether the Hawks were running an operation in Sandhurst, that he did not know where Lebeya had obtained the allegation that impostors were present, and that it was the first time in his career the national head had phoned him about a live operation. Justice Mbuyiseli Madlanga said then that Lebeya would almost certainly be called. He testified for the first time on 27 August 2026 (Day 168), appearing at his own expense after the South African Police Service refused his application for state-funded legal representation, and denied the allegation on its premise: he does not know Molefe, was contacted instead by a Johannesburg businessman who uses the name Malcolm X, directed two senior managers to verify a claim that people were impersonating the Hawks in his name, and has never instructed members of the directorate to interrupt a legitimate police operation. He also told the commission that private investigator Paul O'Sullivan sought an update from him on the classified Phala Phala investigation and was refused, and confirmed that he had discussed misconduct allegations against then IDAC head Advocate Andrea Johnson with then National Director of Public Prosecutions Advocate Shamila Batohi. He returned for a second appearance on 1 September 2026 (Day 171), when evidence leader Advocate Lee Segeels-Ncube moved him off Sandhurst and onto the roughly 541kg of cocaine, worth about R200 million, seized at Durban harbour in 2021 and then stolen from a walk-in safe at the Hawks' Port Shepstone offices. He said he did not know where the consignment had been stored until after it was gone, which contradicts the evidence of his former KwaZulu-Natal provincial head Major General Lesetja Senona, who told this commission he had informed him; asked to resolve it, Lebeya would not say Senona had lied. He concluded his evidence on 2 September 2026 (Day 172), when evidence leader Advocate Lee Segeels-Ncube showed him a photograph recovered from Katiso Molefe's phone of the five men the commission's evidence identifies as the alleged 'Big Five', and he said he knew none of them and had no knowledge of the grouping. Pressed on a WhatsApp message of 6 December 2024 in which Malcolm X thanked him on behalf of a man called 'King Nyambose', he said he had never asked who that was; Justice Madlanga asked him directly what he was being thanked for. He confirmed he had known since October 2023 that Malcolm X had been arrested with three police officers on corruption and extortion allegations. He ended three days on the stand with two words about himself: 'I am incorruptible.' Nothing on this page is a finding, every allegation is untested, and everyone named is presumed innocent.
Dr Mark Shaw
Executive Director, Global Initiative Against Transnational Organised Crime
The executive director of the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organised Crime, the Geneva-based research network that compiles the global organised crime index, and a long-standing analyst of South African criminal markets. He gave expert evidence to the Madlanga Commission on 2 September 2026 (Day 172), the last public sitting before the commission's September recess, and he is the first witness the archive has recorded who was not there to answer for anything or to accuse anyone. His purpose was measurement. Per EWN and SABC News, he told the panel that 'South Africa is in the top 5% of all countries in the world in respect of criminal markets and actors as measured by the index', placing the country alongside Colombia, Mexico, Paraguay, Ecuador, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Nigeria, Lebanon, Turkey and Kenya, and seventh out of the 193 countries surveyed. He testified that South Africa's homicide rate exceeds those of Colombia and Mexico and now resembles Ecuador's, that Gqeberha ranks third globally among cities affected by territorial gang violence with Cape Town also severely affected, and that the country's criminal markets span drug trafficking, extortion, financial crime, illicit trade and cybercrime. He tied the ranking to state capture and to the infiltration of state institutions by criminal networks, which is this commission's own mandate expressed as comparative research, and said repeated state interventions have failed to reach the causes of the violence. He then turned to remedies, taking the panel through Italy's restructuring of its anti-mafia prosecution system and identifying the absence of legislation dealing with the unexplained wealth of public officials as a gap in South African law. His evidence is expert opinion placed before a commission of inquiry. It is not a finding, and it makes no allegation against any individual.
Lieutenant-Col Deenadayalan Govender
Head of the Hawks' KwaZulu-Natal provincial tracing team; former commander of the province's cash-in-transit task team, South African Police Service
The South African Police Service officer who headed the cash-in-transit task team in KwaZulu-Natal, now attached to the Hawks' Serious Organised Crime Unit as head of the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation's KwaZulu-Natal provincial tracing team, and the man at the centre of the evidence the Madlanga Commission began hearing on 12 August 2026 (Day 157) about alleged police hit squads in the province. Len Barnabas John, the Independent Police Investigative Directorate's deputy director for investigations in KwaZulu-Natal, told the commission that the majority of the shootings of alleged cash-in-transit suspects examined by IPID involved a task team under Govender's command, and alleged that Govender - whose SAPS take-home pay was under R26,000 a month - received suspicious cash payments totalling more than R2.5 million from the owner of a tow-truck company between August 2022 and December 2023, and more than R2.7 million in connection with the killing of alleged drug figure Bevan Loftus. Gregory Loftus, Bevan's father and a former police officer, testified on Day 158 that he had gone to court the day before the killing to interdict Govender and the SAPS from murdering his son. Govender took the stand for the first time on 21 August 2026 (Day 164) and refuted the allegations against him. He also made an allegation of his own: that he was approached and pressured to give evidence implicating KwaZulu-Natal provincial commissioner Lieutenant-General Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi, and that on a telephone call placed by a colleague, suspended Police Minister Senzo Mchunu told them they must not let anyone ruin the country and instructed them to tell the commission that the police shootings had been carried out on Mkhwanazi's instructions. He returned to the stand on 31 August 2026 (Day 170), after the commission refused his application to give that part of his evidence behind closed doors, and the day split in two: he hardened his allegation against Mchunu, dating the meeting to 20 August 2026 and saying he recorded it, and he was then taken by chief evidence leader Advocate Matthew Chaskalson SC through 65 cash deposits totalling R1.7 million into accounts held by him and his wife between August 2022 and December 2023, a pattern Chaskalson put to him as having 'all the hallmarks of money laundering'. He denied receiving anything from tow-truck operator Clive Naicker and denied any personal relationship with him. Everything on this page is untested. The allegations against Govender have not been considered by any court and he is presumed innocent; his own allegation against Mchunu has not been answered before this commission and Mchunu is presumed innocent. Nothing recorded here is a finding of any kind.
Madoda Johannes 'Joe Ferrari' Sibanyoni
Taxi owner; president, South African Local and Long Distance Taxi and Bus Organisation
One of the largest operators in the South African minibus taxi industry, and for the past year one of the names this commission has heard about without hearing from. He entered the industry as a driver in 1985, bought his first taxi in 1995, and now runs a fleet of roughly 400 vehicles across Gauteng and Mpumalanga; he is president of the South African Local and Long Distance Taxi and Bus Organisation and a former Santaco provincial chairman and deputy president. Suspended Sergeant Fannie Nkosi told the commission that Sibanyoni was one of a 'group of five' businessmen, and investigators have alleged that the syndicate Crime Intelligence calls the Big Five manipulates police investigations and controls taxi routes through violence and extortion. Sibanyoni rejects that. Testifying under a Rule 10.6 notice on 28 August 2026 (Day 169), he told the commission he was the network's target rather than its member: that gunmen shot him in 2006 and again in August 2022, that the late taxi mogul Jotham 'King Mswazi' Msibi was behind the threat against him, that Msibi's death in January 2024 brought relief, and that he had asked then Police Minister Bheki Cele for an inquiry into a cartel with roots inside the police and been refused. He is the state's first witness in the attempted murder trial arising from the August 2022 shooting, in which Vusimuzi 'Cat' Matlala and four co-accused have pleaded not guilty. Separately, he was arrested on 12 May 2026 and faces extortion and two counts of money laundering over an alleged R2.2 million in protection fees demanded from a mining businessman between 2022 and 2025; he denies those charges. He read his statement into the record without completing his evidence and cross-examination was set down for 21 September 2026. Nothing on this page is a finding, every allegation both by and against him is untested, and everyone named is presumed innocent.
Vusimuzi 'Cat' Matlala
Businessman; alleged 'Big Five' cartel figure
The businessman at the centre of the Madlanga Commission - named in Crime Intelligence testimony as a leading figure in the alleged 'Big Five' cartel and tied to the irregular R360 million SAPS Medicare24 health-services tender (about R228 million paid) won by his company. He testified for the first time on 17 August 2026 (Day 160) under subpoena, and invoked the constitutional privilege against self-incrimination on almost every question bearing on that tender and on his pending criminal trial. On 25 June 2026 Matlala pleaded guilty in the Pretoria Specialised Commercial Crimes Court to fraud, corruption and money-laundering over that tender and agreed to become a section 204 state witness against his former co-accused, most of them senior police officers. But on 1 July the court rejected the agreed eight-year effective sentence as too lenient, and on 13 July 2026 Matlala withdrew from the plea-and-sentence agreement rather than accept the 12-year term Magistrate Ignatius du Preez proposed; the court declared the agreement null and void, the guilty plea fell away, and the case - against Matlala and his companies Medicare24 Tshwane District and Luxo Africa Brand Investments - was set down for trial on 11 September 2026. The NPA said his plea statement cannot be used in new prosecutions. He separately faces an attempted-murder trial. With the plea withdrawn, all the charges against him are once again to be tested at trial and he is presumed innocent. His commission appearance was postponed to 1 September on 15 July 2026 after his counsel argued his rights as a potential accused had to take precedence over the commission's timetable, then brought forward to 17 August 2026, when he finally took the stand. On that day he denied any relationship with suspended Police Minister Senzo Mchunu or with Maj-Gen Feroz Khan, confirmed he had met Lt-Gen Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi without saying what was discussed, put his loan from Suleiman Carrim at R15 million against Carrim's March figure of R10 million, and claimed the privilege on the tender, on alleged gratifications to police officers and on a recording said to discuss 20 live impala delivered to Lt-Gen Shadrack Sibiya's farm. He returned on 24 August 2026 (Day 165), a sitting consumed by a failed application to stand his evidence down after his lead counsel fell ill, and again on 25 August 2026 (Day 166), when the commission narrowed the privilege point and he answered: he described a joint venture with businessman Hangwani 'Morgan' Maumela for financing Gauteng health department quotations, and said he had introduced Maumela to the late taxi boss Jotham 'King Mswazi' Msibi. On 26 August 2026 (Day 167) the evidence leaders moved onto a policeman: Major General Lesetja Senona, until June 2026 the provincial head of the KwaZulu-Natal Hawks. Matlala denied any improper dealing, called Senona 'not friends but he's my older brother', said the general lent him R20,000 after police raided his Pretoria home on 6 December 2024 and seized his phones, and confirmed WhatsApp messages of 13 May 2025 in which Senona advised him to take legal advice about challenging the cancellation of the Medicare24 contract. He said Senona accompanied him to a 15 April 2025 meeting with Lieutenant General Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi at Umhlanga arranged by former police minister Bheki Cele, and that at that meeting he raised payments made to Lieutenant General Shadrack Sibiya by other people and not by him. He refused to discuss a joint property venture with Senona and the general's son Thato, saying his conduct with Senona is under investigation for corruption. He is part-heard.
Fadiel Adams
Member of Parliament and leader, National Coloured Congress
The Member of Parliament and National Coloured Congress leader whose section 27 complaint to the Investigating Directorate Against Corruption founded the entire Crime Intelligence investigation - the case against Lieutenant-General Dumisani Khumalo and Brigadier Dineo Mokwele that the National Prosecuting Authority provisionally withdrew on 27 July 2026. His referral, which followed six criminal cases he laid in 2024, asked for an investigation into the Political Killings Task Team over allegations that its members had misused Crime Intelligence's secret services account. That document has become the most contested piece of paper in the inquiry: Colonel Brian Padayachee conceded on Day 141 that he did not have Adams's original signed affidavit when the investigation began, a supplementary statement marked 'A1' attributed to Adams was disputed on tape by two IDAC officials on Day 148, and Advocate Peter Serunye testified on Day 153 that he was repeatedly refused access to the referral after taking over the prosecution. Adams first came before the commission on 11 August 2026, when a ten-month delay in filing his statement - which he attributed to a parliamentary laptop that persistently froze - drew the word 'unbelievable' from chairperson Mbuyiseli Madlanga and a public contradiction from Parliament, whose ICT records reflect no such fault. His evidence was postponed to 19 August 2026 (Day 162), when he gave testimony for the first time. That day was spent almost entirely on his own credibility: chairperson Madlanga put to him a Rule 3 notice sent on 3 October 2025 and his own reply of 14 October 2025, against his evidence that he had only seen the request some three months earlier, and Adams conceded that 'the information I submitted was wrong'. He denied intending to mislead the inquiry. The substance of his allegations, and of KZN commissioner Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi's allegation that he obtained Crime Intelligence material he was not entitled to, has not yet been heard. He is separately serving a 20-day suspension from Parliament imposed on 5 August 2026 in an unrelated ethics matter. He has said publicly that he will 'drop big bombs', and has called on IDAC state advocate Drushantha Ramsamy to release a recording she holds of him. On Day 163, 20 August 2026, he named the source of roughly 90 percent of the Crime Intelligence allegations for the first time: the late Major-General Andre Lincoln, former head of Nelson Mandela's Presidential Investigation Task Unit and of the Western Cape Anti-Gang Unit, who died on 30 May 2025 and whom Adams had never named to the minister, the Inspector-General of Intelligence or IDAC. On Day 164, 21 August 2026, he finished his evidence by accepting that he may have been used: 'I do believe I was used.' That day he apologised for being under-prepared, retracted his account of telephoning the man he knew as 'Elvis' from inside Orlando SAPS, accepted that Lieutenant-General Peter Jacobs was entitled to call for his dockets, conceded that his contact with the police minister's chief of staff Cedrick Nkabinde had begun before the 1 November 2024 date he had given, and admitted that he had not known Brigadier Dineo Mokwele's name when he laid the complaint that founded her prosecution - he knew her as 'the BMW lady'. The commission played parts of the recording of his 6 January 2025 IDAC consultation over his objection; on it he told state advocate Drushantha Ramsamy that he had no connections at Orlando police station, and Commissioner Sesi Baloyi told him his change of account was 'not oversight; it's a deliberate decision'. He said he intends to lay criminal charges against Ramsamy and report her to the Legal Practice Council. On the same morning the National Prosecuting Authority unconditionally withdrew all charges against Khumalo, Mokwele and five other Crime Intelligence officers. Nothing here is a finding against him; he is presumed innocent and the disputes about the paperwork are untested.
Ashley Houston
Retired captain, South African Police Service; firearms expert
A retired South African Police Service captain and firearms expert who attended the scene of the Morningside shooting in which Durban tow-truck operator Bevan Loftus and four other people were killed on 1 April 2023, and who gave evidence to the Madlanga Commission on 13 August 2026 (Day 158). His evidence cut both ways, which is what gives it weight. He described Bevan Loftus as a notorious figure who had been seen associating with the local Hollywood gang - contradicting the account the deceased's father had just given the commission. He then told the commission that the task team's own version of the shooting was 'highly improbable' on the physical evidence. The officers' account was that they found a door ajar, that men jumped up from a couch and that a shootout followed in which 27 rounds were fired. Houston's evidence was that the scene did not fit: 'most blood spatters were low on the wall and mostly on the floor', a distribution inconsistent with men shot while standing and returning fire, and the bodies lined up in the lounge did not match the wound trajectories he would expect from rifle fire in a flat that small. He is an expert witness, not an accused. His conclusions are opinion evidence placed before a commission of inquiry, they have not been tested in court, no finding has been made, and every officer concerned is presumed innocent and entitled to answer.
Gregory Loftus
Former police officer; father of Bevan Loftus
A former South African Police Service officer, and the father of Durban tow-truck operator Bevan Loftus, who was shot dead with four other people by a SAPS task team on 1 April 2023. He was the first witness the Madlanga Commission heard in the family strand of its KwaZulu-Natal hit-squad phase, giving evidence on 13 August 2026 (Day 158) led by evidence leader Advocate Sikhakhane SC. The core of his account is documentary: on 31 March 2023, the day before the shooting, he deposed to an affidavit supporting an urgent High Court interdict application seeking to restrain Captain Deena Govender and the SAPS from murdering his son, and, as he put it to the commission, 'a day after the application was issued, Captain Deena Govender and a group of SAPS officers under his command murdered my son anyway'. He alleged the killing was carried out 'under the guise of a legitimate police operation and at the instance of Clive Naiker, a competitor of Bevan in the tow truck industry and alleged drug dealer'. He rejected the police account that his son was a drug dealer, said Bevan lived modestly off a legitimate towing business, and told the commission the drug narrative was assembled afterwards to justify the shooting. He also described police harassment of his son that he said began in 2022, and told the commission five of his son's drivers had been shot since 2020. He is a bereaved family member giving evidence, not an accused. Everything he alleges is untested, no court has yet determined it, and every officer and person he names is presumed innocent.
Len Barnabas John
Deputy director for investigations, Independent Police Investigative Directorate (IPID), KwaZulu-Natal
The Independent Police Investigative Directorate's provincial investigations chief in KwaZulu-Natal, and the witness with whom the Madlanga Commission opened an entirely new phase of the inquiry on 12 August 2026 (Day 157) after a month spent inside the Investigating Directorate Against Corruption. His evidence concerns the allegation that SAPS task teams in KwaZulu-Natal have been operating as hit squads under the cover of legitimate policing. He told the commission that IPID examined 149 deaths caused by SAPS task teams in the province between April 2023 and 31 May 2026, and that he had focused on 77 of those cases; that the standard account of officers returning fire was not consistently supported by the scenes - 'you will get a shooting where six people are shot and killed. When you do an investigation, you find only two firearms' - and that in IPID's assessment 'they go out to kill the person; that is why we indicate extrajudicial'. He described three units targeting illicit drugs, cash-in-transit robberies and taxi-industry crime under the command of Lieutenant-Colonel Deenadayalan Govender and Captain Pedro Rodrigues, and said the Crime Intelligence information on which the teams acted was often never verified against dockets, other investigations or the responsible detectives. He alleged that Govender, on a SAPS take-home salary of under R26,000 a month, received more than R2.5 million from a tow-truck company owner between August 2022 and December 2023 and more than R2.7 million connected to the killing of alleged drug figure Bevan Loftus, and that the province's tow-truck industry is heavily entangled with the drug trade. He is an investigator giving evidence, not an accused. Everything he alleges is untested, no court has considered it, and every officer he names is presumed innocent.
Advocate Drushantha Ramsamy
State advocate, Investigating Directorate Against Corruption (IDAC)
The state advocate inside the Investigating Directorate Against Corruption who prosecuted alongside the directorate's leadership on the Crime Intelligence docket - and who, across three days at the Madlanga Commission (Days 151, 154 and 156), has become the central witness against her own former head. Her evidence is the first time a serving IDAC prosecutor has given a first-hand account of how the case against Lieutenant-General Dumisani Khumalo and Brigadier Dineo Mokwele was assembled. On Day 151 she played the commission a recording she had made of a telephone call with Advocate Andrea Johnson on 26 July 2026, in which Johnson is heard calling the inquiry 'a shitshow' and, asked what Ramsamy should do if summoned, saying 'if they call you, leave the country'. She testified that Johnson personally drove an investigation known internally as 'Project Diversion' aimed at national commissioner General Fannie Masemola and Khumalo, describing it as an 'orchestrated attack' on the two men; that Johnson handed her a suspect list on a pinkish-purple sheet on 5 December 2024 saying 'these are the suspects, Chief and I discussed who is to be included'; and that staff nicknamed Johnson 'Flip-Flop, Knee-Jerk' because instructions changed through the day after she consulted chief investigator Dylan Perumal. On Day 154 she went further, describing an alleged plan to keep Masemola ignorant of IDAC investigations so that he would mislead Parliament's portfolio committee on police and could then be charged with perjury - 'we should let him lie at the portfolio committee' - and, asked whether that was a set-up, answered 'correct'. On Day 156 she placed suspended Police Minister Senzo Mchunu in the route by which a still-classified Inspector-General of Intelligence report reached IDAC after the watchdog had refused to release it. She was also one of the two IDAC officials whose recorded voice notes, heard on Day 148, disputed the authenticity of the 'A1' statement Perumal filed. The commission indicated on 1 August 2026 that it was prepared to arrange protection for her. She is a witness giving evidence, not an accused; her account is untested, and everyone she names is presumed innocent.
Matthews Sesoko
Head of investigations and operations, Investigating Directorate Against Corruption (IDAC)
IDAC's head of investigations and operations, formerly head of investigations at the Independent Police Investigative Directorate, who gave evidence to the Madlanga Commission on 6 August 2026 (Day 155) about how the directorate is actually run - and why the Crime Intelligence case did not pass through him. He told the commission he was abducted on 7 November 2025, assaulted and abandoned near Rabie Ridge in Midrand with his work cellphone and laptop taken, and returned to duty on 13 January 2026. On his return his authority had been substantially reduced: chief investigators no longer reported to him but directly to then IDAC head Advocate Andrea Johnson, and his responsibilities were cut back largely to administrative matters such as leave and travel. He no longer chairs the directorate's Operations Management Committee - 'a decision was made that the DDPPs would now chair that committee' - and said he was given no reason for the change. Asked why he had not intervened in the investigation of Lieutenant-General Dumisani Khumalo, he cited his experience at his previous employer, the kidnapping, and having been unlawfully charged himself, and said he did not 'impose himself' on the docket. Much of his evidence went to how IDAC selects the cases it takes and declines; the commission heard on the same day that IDAC's investigation manual had been approved rather than left in draft, and that the directorate has no clearly defined consequences for officials who fail to follow due process. On the strength of that week's evidence, chairperson Mbuyiseli Madlanga raised the prospect that the commission could recommend that IDAC be shut down. He is an official giving evidence, not an accused; his account is untested and everyone he names is presumed innocent.
Advocate Peter Serunye
Deputy Director of Public Prosecutions, Investigating Directorate Against Corruption (IDAC)
The senior prosecutor who inherited the Investigating Directorate Against Corruption's case against Crime Intelligence, and who told the Madlanga Commission on 4 August 2026 (Day 153) that the case never made sense to him. Serunye, a Deputy Director of Public Prosecutions at IDAC, took over the prosecution of Lieutenant-General Dumisani Khumalo and six co-accused on 8 August 2025. He testified that the accused had been arrested prematurely - brought to court before the investigation was complete and before critical evidence had been gathered - and that the investigators had 'proceeded on allegations rather than evidence'. On the corruption count he said the theory collapsed at the first question: 'it was not apparent what she could offer the generals in return, nor what unlawful act she was to perform', a reference to Brigadier Dineo Mokwele, whose appointment founded the charge. He described discovering at a June 2025 court appearance that a junior state advocate was running the bail hearing alone with only the investigating officer, the J15 form incomplete and no bail affidavit in existence. He repeatedly asked for MP Fadiel Adams's section 27 referral and was refused it; at a meeting on 1 September 2025 then IDAC head Advocate Andrea Johnson asked why he would not accept the investigators' assurances and urged him to proceed. He emailed Johnson warning that there was at most a prima facie case of fraud and no case of corruption on the available evidence. He told the commission he now believes he was 'set up' and that he and junior state advocate Joy Hlatshwayo had been drawn into an investigation they should never have been part of. The National Prosecuting Authority provisionally withdrew all the charges on 27 July 2026. He is a prosecutor giving evidence, not an accused; his account is untested and everyone he names is presumed innocent.
Mantsha Robert Raphesu
Investigator, Investigating Directorate Against Corruption (IDAC)
The Investigating Directorate Against Corruption investigator who was the lead on the Brigadier Dineo Mokwele matter - the appointment that founded the whole Crime Intelligence prosecution - and who testified at the Madlanga Commission on 31 July 2026 (Day 152) that he was cut out of his own docket and punished for objecting. He is one of the two IDAC officials whose recorded voice notes, played to the commission on Day 148, disputed the authenticity of the supplementary 'A1' statement chief investigator Dylan Perumal filed; this archive withheld both names at the time because reputable outlets could not agree on them, and released them once both had testified in person. Raphesu told the commission he intends to open a criminal case against Perumal and senior investigator Brian Padayachee, alleging that they targeted him, and asked the commission to intervene because he feared a complaint lodged through the normal channels could end up 'in the wrong hands'. He said team members consulted witnesses on the Mokwele matter without informing or involving him, that he was removed from key investigations, subjected to disciplinary action and later barred from working on cases involving police officers and the security cluster. He produced a disciplinary letter dated 7 February 2025 from then IDAC head Advocate Andrea Johnson's office accusing him of leaking confidential information, denied it, and volunteered his cellphone for forensic examination and himself for a polygraph test. He further testified that Johnson had put a false version of MP Fadiel Adams's section 27 referral before Parliament's ad hoc committee on police corruption, omitting the allegations that the Political Killings Task Team had misused Crime Intelligence's secret services account. He is an investigator giving evidence, not an accused; his account is untested and everyone he names is presumed innocent.
Advocate Andrea Johnson
Head, Investigating Directorate Against Corruption (IDAC)
The former head of the Investigating Directorate Against Corruption (IDAC), the National Prosecuting Authority's specialist anti-corruption body. After two July postponements - including a 13 July 2026 no-show for which chairperson Mbuyiseli Madlanga dismissed her medical certificate as 'useless' - she testified before the Madlanga Commission across six days on 21, 22, 23, 27, 28 and 29 July 2026 (Days 144-146, 148-150), and the evidence leaders have signalled she will be recalled under a Rule 3 notice to answer allegations that emerged after her evidence closed. Her evidence became the pivot of the inquiry's IDAC phase: she conceded she had erred in finding that the corruption case against Crime Intelligence head Lieutenant-General Dumisani Khumalo fell within IDAC's mandate, accepted that investigators in her unit 'may well be conducting investigations of individuals that are not authorised', and admitted she had never personally verified Brigadier Dineo Mokwele's qualifications before charges were brought. She resigned on 26 July 2026, asking to be released within 24 hours; President Cyril Ramaphosa accepted the resignation with immediate effect on 27 July, and she returned to the stand the next day as a private citizen. The same day her resignation was accepted, the NPA withdrew the Crime Intelligence case her directorate had built. She separately answered whistleblower evidence that, as an NPA prosecutor in 2018, she caused an assault-case docket to be leaked to suspended Crime Intelligence deputy head Major-General Feroz Khan before he was charged - saying her 'memory needed jogging', describing Khan as 'very affable', and invoking her right against self-incrimination, confirming the matter sits in an NPA docket that will decide whether she is prosecuted. All allegations are untested and she is presumed innocent.
Col Brian Padayachee
Senior investigator, Investigating Directorate Against Corruption (IDAC)
The senior Investigating Directorate Against Corruption (IDAC) investigator who led the directorate's fraud and corruption case against suspended SAPS Crime Intelligence head Lieutenant-General Dumisani Khumalo and others over the allegedly irregular appointment of Brigadier Dineo Mokwele. He gave evidence at the Madlanga Commission across three days (14, 15 and 16 July 2026, Days 139-141), defending the investigation as backed by strong evidence and denying that IDAC was being weaponised in police infighting - but he faced sustained scepticism from the panel over whether the directorate had any lawful basis for the case. The National Prosecuting Authority withdrew that case provisionally on 27 July 2026, and on 30 July National Director of Public Prosecutions Advocate Andy Mothibi suspended him pending a disciplinary process, alongside investigator Suneel Bellochun; Justice Minister Mmamoloko Kubayi suspended chief investigator Dylan Perumal the same day. A precautionary suspension is an employment step and not a finding of wrongdoing. He is an investigator who gave evidence, not an accused before the commission, and he is presumed innocent.
Vusi Shongwe
MK Party Member of Parliament
An MK Party Member of Parliament who served on Parliament's ad hoc committee on policing and testified before the Madlanga Commission on 30 June 2026 (Day 129). Shongwe told the commission that as he pressed for suspended SAPS Crime Intelligence boss Major-General Feroz Khan to account before Parliament, Khan and his alleged associates offered him a R10 million bribe - and that EFF leader Julius Malema was the most vocal in opposing Khan being called to appear. He says he refused the offer, reported it to former president Jacob Zuma, and brought it to both the parliamentary committee and the commission. Everything below is his evidence; the allegations are untested and all those he names - Khan and Malema among them - are presumed innocent.
Itumeleng 'Tumelo' Nku
Businessman; disputed Aeroton police informer
A businessman at the centre of the Aeroton strand of the Madlanga Commission, who finally testified on 25-26 June 2026 (Days 126-127). Evidence is that Nku tipped off Gauteng traffic chief Samuel Mashaba to the cocaine truck travelling from Durban a day before the 2021 Aeroton bust, and the commission used his WhatsApp exchanges with Mashaba to question their relationship. Nku maintains he was an unregistered, unpaid police informer and described himself as a consultant skilled in data analysis, 'ethical hacking' and cyber-penetration testing who has been paid by foreign intelligence agencies; a Hawks analyst, Witness J, countered that he was 'a drug trafficker, not an informer'. He returned on 29 June with a substantially changed account, and on 2 July 2026 (Day 131) the commission postponed the remainder of his testimony indefinitely, citing security concerns. All references to him are untested allegations and he is presumed innocent.
Julius Mkhwanazi
Suspended Deputy Chief, Ekurhuleni Metro Police Department (EMPD)
The suspended Deputy Chief of the Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Police Department (EMPD), who testified before the Madlanga Commission on procurement and a 'blue lights' emergency-equipment scandal linked to alleged cartel figure Vusimuzi 'Cat' Matlala. He is NOT Lieutenant-General Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi, the KwaZulu-Natal provincial commissioner whose July 2025 allegations triggered this commission - they share a surname only. On 9 July 2026 he was granted R50,000 bail in the Germiston Magistrate's Court as one of the 'Ekurhuleni Four' officials charged with corruption over the alleged shielding of his blue-lights conduct and irregular salary adjustments. On 27 August 2026 he was served with a fifth arrest warrant, and the blue-lights allegation itself became a prosecution the next day: on 28 August he appeared in the Germiston Magistrate's Court alongside Vusimuzi 'Cat' Matlala and EMPD fleet manager Chris Steyn on charges of corruption, fraud and defeating the ends of justice. The magistrate reserved judgment on his bail to 14 September 2026 and he is held at Benoni police station until then. All matters below are allegations or contested testimony; he denies wrongdoing and is presumed innocent.
Witness K
Inspector, VIP Protection Unit, Johannesburg Metro Police Department (JMPD)
An inspector in the Johannesburg Metropolitan Police Department's VIP Protection Unit who testified before the Madlanga Commission on 23 June 2026 as 'Witness K' - in camera, with her voice broadcast publicly but her name and image withheld for her safety. She told the commission she had been in a romantic relationship with suspended Ekurhuleni Metro Police Department deputy chief Julius Mkhwanazi and came forward to acknowledge her own role in, and give evidence about, an alleged theft of precious sugilite stones worth about R14.9 million from a Killarney flat on 11 February 2023, staged as a lawful police search-and-seizure. Everything below is contested evidence or an untested allegation; all those she names are presumed innocent.
Maj-Gen Lesetja Senona
Provincial Head, KZN Hawks (DPCI)
The provincial head of the KZN Hawks who personally directed that the seized cocaine be stored at the Port Shepstone office. Suspended and recalled, he returned to the Madlanga Commission on 19 June 2026 - now represented by Advocate Dali Mpofu SC - and went on the offensive, accusing the inquiry of unfair treatment, denying he ran a hostile unit, and disputing the evidence of junior officers. He says no security threats were ever reported to him, that he was removed from his office at gunpoint 'like a dog', and that he never intentionally misled anyone. On 26 June 2026, days after turning 60, he resigned from the Hawks with immediate effect; his lawyer confirmed it on 30 June. He remains under commission scrutiny over the 2021 Port Shepstone cocaine theft and his friendship with tender-fraud-accused Vusimuzi 'Cat' Matlala.
Brig. Campbell Nyuswa
Provincial Commander, Serious Organised Crime - KZN Hawks
The officer in the middle of the chain finally took the stand at the Madlanga Commission on 17 June 2026. The KZN Hawks Serious Organised Crime commander told the inquiry he chose the Port Shepstone office to store the ~541kg cocaine seizure because the landlord said its safes 'could only be accessed with the keys', conceded the building's known security weaknesses, and said provincial head Major General Senona approved the site and then took possession of both keys. He testified he suspected the strong-room heist was staged, said he knows who stole the drugs but would not name them, denied any involvement and apologised to the country.
Samuel Mashaba
Chief Provincial Inspector, Gauteng Traffic Police
The former head of the Gauteng Traffic Police (Chief Provincial Inspector), who gave three days of evidence before the Madlanga Commission on the 2021 Aeroton cocaine bust. He testified that a July 2021 tip-off led to the interception of more than 700kg of cocaine, and was one of four law-enforcement officers arrested at the scene by the Hawks for alleged drug dealing; he accuses Crime Intelligence's Maj-Gen Feroz Khan of disrupting the operation and orchestrating the arrests. Under cross-examination his account unravelled: the commission probed an undisclosed, allegedly funded relationship with businessman Tumelo Nku, messages touching on the late Deputy President David Mabuza and MEC Faith Mazibuko, and on his final day chairperson Madlanga told him directly, 'you are being untruthful'. These are untested allegations; Mashaba and everyone he names are presumed innocent.
Witness I
Hawks narcotics team leader (SANEB)
A career Hawks drug investigator who testified before the Madlanga Commission on 9-10 June 2026 under the pseudonym Witness I, by audio link, with his identity protected by a commission ruling for his safety. In 2021 he was team leader of the South African Narcotics Enforcement Bureau (SANEB) and a sub-section commander in the Tactical Operations Management Section (TOMS), and led the team behind the July 2021 Aeroton cocaine bust - about 715kg, an estimated R300 million. He testified that a senior Crime Intelligence officer hijacked the operation and that he was offered a promotion to change his statement. On day two his own credibility became the issue: he testified that 'Cat' Matlala had been a police informant, and disclosed that he had lived for about two years at a Matlala family property - an arrangement he says followed a 2023 attempt on his life - which evidence leaders probed as a possible conflict. All those he named are presumed innocent.
Zelda Maphosho
Assistant Director of Investigations, IPID
The IPID assistant director who ran the Independent Police Investigative Directorate's investigation into the police accused of trying to steal from the Aeroton cocaine bust. Under cross-examination she conceded IPID had never seen the forensic cellphone evidence, that it was refused the case docket, and that the arrests at the scene may have been premature.
Lt-Col Nkoana Joseph Sebola
Senior Hawks investigator
The Hawks investigator who took command of the chaotic July 2021 Aeroton crime scene and arrested two SAPS members he says were caught trying to steal from the R286 million cocaine seizure. He told the commission a senior officer phoned and asked him to resolve the bust 'amicably' on the spot - he refused - and has since linked the Aeroton operation, through intercepted WhatsApp messages and cellphone downloads, to the same cartel behind the stolen Durban-port consignment.
Lt-Col Kwazikwakhe Sibiya
Hawks officer, Durban Serious Organised Crime Unit
A Durban Hawks officer brought onto the June 2021 Isipingo cocaine bust by his commander, Colonel Gavin Jacob - the seizure that preceded the R200m Port Shepstone theft. He told the commission he followed orders and was away at a Paarl training camp when the safe was broken into; the panel openly questioned his account.
Col Gavin Jacob
Commander, Durban Serious Organised Crime Unit - KZN Hawks
A chemistry graduate and commander of the Durban serious organised crime unit who led the 2021 seizure that became the R200m theft. He denied any role and said a polygraph vindicated him, but the commission challenged a string of decisions - booking himself onto the operation while on leave, running the scene himself for the first time at that scale, and moving the exhibits off-site - as irregular and inconsistent with his own statement.
W/O Karl Sander
Hawks narcotics investigator
A narcotics investigator with nearly four decades of service whose testimony became one of the most-watched moments of the commission. He said junior officers were victimised over the R200m theft, was polygraphed - including over his own stolen coffee machine - and was exonerated on the stand. The public rallied behind him, raising over half a million rand.
Oupa 'Brown' Mogotsi
North West businessman
A North West businessman whom commission witnesses described as an alleged middleman or 'conduit' linking former police minister Senzo Mchunu and alleged organised-crime figure Vusimuzi 'Cat' Matlala. He testified in November 2025 and returned on 15 May 2026, where he initially invoked his right to remain silent, failed in a bid to have evidence leader Matthew Chaskalson recused, and was arrested shortly afterward. All claims against him are untested allegations; he is presumed innocent.
W/O Marumo Magane
Analyst, SAPS
An analyst with no specialised drug-investigation experience who handled the 2021 Aeroton cocaine seizure. He admitted loading cocaine-filled bags onto an open police vehicle without gloves, failing to preserve the scene.
Lt-Col Jakobus Prinsloo
Lieutenant Colonel (retired), KZN Hawks
A retired Hawks officer who told the commission the theft might have been an inside job. He detailed the Port Shepstone facility's security failures and underwent a six-hour polygraph test, which he passed.
Major-Gen Richard Shibiri
Head of the SAPS Organised Crime component (dismissed)
The head of the SAPS Organised Crime component until his dismissal. He testified before the Madlanga Commission in March 2026 about his relationship with organised-crime accused Vusimuzi 'Cat' Matlala, including a roughly R70,000 payment he says was a repaid loan for his son's car repairs. SAPS dismissed him in mid-2026 after an internal disciplinary process found he had brought the service into disrepute by associating with a known criminal; he denies wrongdoing and is reportedly challenging the dismissal. He is a distinct person from Lt-Gen Shadrack Sibiya and Lt-Col Kwazikwakhe Sibiya - the surnames Shibiri and Sibiya are different.
Suleiman Carrim
Businessman
On 14 August 2026 (Day 159) the Madlanga Commission resolved to lay criminal charges against Suleiman Carrim - the first time in its existence it has done so against a person summoned to give evidence. He did not appear on the date the commission had ordered him to attend in person, and had not submitted to the independent medical examination its 29 July ruling made the only alternative. Chairperson Justice Mbuyiseli Madlanga instructed the commission's secretary, Dr Nolitha Vukuza, to lay the charges, stressed that the commission would lay them rather than recommend them, and ruled that Carrim will no longer be required to appear and that findings will be made on the evidence he gave on 9 and 10 March 2026. Evidence leader Advocate Adila Hassim said the medical report received two days beforehand was 'essentially an opinion by the same treating doctor' and did not address the daily outings; the commission had before it evidence that a man too unwell to testify had been out at Woolworths and Kauai, and Madlanga told his counsel: 'From where I am sitting, they appear to have been outings even if you say they are not outings.' His advocate Kameel Premhid argued the referral was unnecessarily punitive and that his treating doctor had offered to testify privately instead. The charge concerns non-compliance with a summons only; it is not a finding on any underlying allegation. A controversial businessman whom the Madlanga Commission's evidence leaders described, alongside Hangwani Maumela, as one of the apparent funders of attempted-murder-accused tenderpreneur Vusimuzi 'Cat' Matlala. Carrim is implicated in the irregular R360 million SAPS health-services tender scored by Matlala's company Medicare24. He testified on 9-10 March 2026 that 'Mogotsi and Matlala played me' out of millions, then repeatedly postponed continuing his evidence citing ill health. On 24 July 2026 (Day 147) the commission heard his latest postponement application in open session, having refused his bid for an in-camera hearing, and was told he had spent a four-hour authorised outing at a Cape Town mall on 14 July while declared unfit to testify; the chairperson said the commission 'can't hold our breath' on a further date and reserved its ruling. On 29 July 2026 (Day 150) that ruling came: the application was refused, and Carrim was ordered to appear in person on 14 August 2026 unless he first submits to an independent medical evaluation by a specialist nominated through the relevant professional association, agreed and completed by 3 August. The ruling required the independent practitioner's report to reach the commission by no later than 12 August 2026 confirming that he is unable to testify on 14 August; failing that, the commission would proceed with an assessment by a practitioner appointed by the chairperson of a recognised medical professionals' association. It was his fifth postponement bid and the first the commission refused. Everything below is contested evidence or an untested allegation; he is presumed innocent.
Lieutenant-Gen Shadrack Sibiya
Suspended Deputy National Commissioner of Police (Crime Detection)
South Africa's Deputy National Commissioner of Police for Crime Detection, suspended in July 2025 after KZN commissioner Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi alleged he interfered in sensitive investigations. Before the Madlanga Commission he was questioned over the disbandment of the KZN Political Killings Task Team, the removal of 121 dockets, and alleged links to figures connected to the so-called 'Big Five' cartel. He denies any corruption, though he conceded certain procedural deviations; none of the allegations has been tested to a finding. He is a different person from Lieutenant-Colonel Kwazikwakhe Sibiya.
Senzo Mchunu
Minister of Police (on special leave)
South Africa's Minister of Police, placed on special leave by President Ramaphosa on 13 July 2025 pending the inquiry. He testified at the Madlanga Commission in response to allegations - principally raised by KZN commissioner Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi - that he improperly disbanded the Political Killings Task Team to shield politically connected individuals. Mchunu denies all wrongdoing and maintains his conduct was lawful; no findings have been made against him and he is presumed innocent.
Lieutenant-Gen Dumisani Khumalo
Head, SAPS Crime Intelligence
The head of SAPS Crime Intelligence, and one of the commission's most consequential early witnesses. On 29 and 30 September 2025 (Days 8 and 9) he testified about an organised syndicate he called the 'Big Five' cartel, naming alleged leaders and producing WhatsApp material he said showed organised crime reaching into the police and politics; he fell ill on 1 October before he could finish, and returned on 4 and 5 November 2025 (Days 25 and 26) to conclude, his final day extended by hours so that evidence leader Advocate Adila Hassim SC could close his evidence before he was due in court the next morning. That court appearance was his own: on 26 June 2025 the Investigating Directorate Against Corruption (IDAC) arrested him at OR Tambo International Airport, with several senior officers, on fraud and corruption charges arising from the appointment of Brigadier Dineo Mokwele to a technical post in Crime Intelligence's Technical Support Services unit - an appointment IDAC called part of an 'attempt to capture Crime Intelligence'. Over eight days of testimony in July 2026 that case unravelled in public: chairperson Mbuyiseli Madlanga called IDAC's core reasoning a 'quantum leap in logic', the Mail & Guardian reported the commission heard he had been charged 'on sparse facts', IDAC's own officials were heard disputing the authenticity of a founding statement, and IDAC head Advocate Andrea Johnson conceded she had erred on her directorate's mandate and had never verified Mokwele's qualifications. On 27 July 2026 National Director of Public Prosecutions Advocate Andy Mothibi signed a provisional withdrawal, before plea, of the case against him and his co-accused, on the express basis that the investigation is incomplete; his letter recorded that the matter may not be re-enrolled, nor any fresh decision to prosecute taken, without his written approval. On 21 August 2026 that withdrawal was formalised and made unconditional: in the Pretoria Magistrate's Court, state advocate Joy Hlatshwayo told the magistrate she was instructed by the NDPP's office to withdraw all charges of corruption and fraud against all seven accused, and that 'the state is withdrawing unconditionally'. The magistrate told them they were free to go. Khumalo said outside court that he would 'continue working and serving the people of South Africa', and acting national commissioner Lieutenant-General Puleng Dimpane said he would continue to focus on strengthening intelligence-driven operations. Everything here is allegation or testimony, not finding, and he is presumed innocent.
Lieutenant-Gen Fannie Masemola
National Commissioner of the South African Police Service (on precautionary suspension)
South Africa's National Commissioner of the South African Police Service, appointed in 2022 and placed on precautionary suspension by President Cyril Ramaphosa on 23 April 2026, with Lieutenant-General Puleng Dimpane appointed Acting National Commissioner in his place. He was among the first witnesses at the Madlanga Commission, and his evidence largely corroborated KZN commissioner Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi's account: the chain of command within SAPS, the limits of ministerial authority, and the disbandment of the KwaZulu-Natal Political Killings Task Team. Separately, in the wave of criminal referrals that followed Mkhwanazi's July 2025 allegations, Masemola was charged by summons - not arrested - with four counts of contravening the Public Finance Management Act (PFMA) over a 2024 SAPS health-services tender awarded to Vusimuzi 'Cat' Matlala's Medicare24. He faces only those PFMA counts (not the fraud, corruption or money-laundering charges laid against the tender's other accused); the charges are untested and he is presumed innocent. On 7 August 2026 his legal team asked the National Director of Public Prosecutions to withdraw the prosecution, and when the matter was called in the Pretoria Magistrate's Court on 28 August 2026 the state disclosed that a seven-member case assessment panel had been authorised to review it. The case was transferred to the Pretoria Regional Court and postponed to 29 September 2026.
Lieutenant-Gen Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi
KwaZulu-Natal provincial police commissioner
The KwaZulu-Natal provincial commissioner of the South African Police Service whose 6 July 2025 press briefing triggered the Madlanga Commission. He alleged that a criminal syndicate linked to a drug cartel had infiltrated the police, prosecution and intelligence services, and that the political killings task team had been disbanded to shield those interests. He appeared as the commission's first witness in its opening days (Days 1-3, 17-19 September 2025), giving evidence as the complainant - not an accused - and has not returned to the witness stand since. His allegations remain the spine of the inquiry: in July 2026, as IDAC investigator Brian Padayachee testified about the directorate's case against Crime Intelligence head Lieutenant-General Dumisani Khumalo, Padayachee said Mkhwanazi had known in advance of, and had no issue with, Khumalo's arrest - a characterisation set against Mkhwanazi's own public criticism of that probe.
Not yet testified
Named or implicated in evidence
These people have been named in testimony, court papers or a summons but have not appeared before the commission. Everything about them remains an untested allegation and they are presumed innocent.
Lieutenant-Gen Puleng Dimpane
Acting National Commissioner of the South African Police Service
The officer who has been running the South African Police Service through most of this commission's evidence, and who has never appeared before it. Puleng Dimpane joined the SAPS in 2007 as an internal auditor, commanded internal audit in the Free State, became the province's major-general for asset management, and in 2018 was appointed divisional commissioner for financial management services - the service's chief financial officer. On 23 April 2026 President Cyril Ramaphosa appointed her Acting National Commissioner, on the day he placed General Fannie Masemola on precautionary suspension over the Medicare24 tender charges, describing her as having extensive experience in policing, strategic finance and governance and a reputation for professionalism and integrity. She is not an accused, a suspect or a summoned witness in this inquiry. She enters the archive twice: once as a witness before Parliament's parallel ad hoc committee in December 2025, where per eNCA she disclosed that the Political Killings Task Team had incurred R435 million in expenses since its inception and told MPs that consequence management within SAPS for irregular expenditure was 'ineffective'; and once inside the commission's own evidence, where Lieutenant-Colonel Deenadayalan Govender testified on Day 170 that she had given KwaZulu-Natal commissioner Lieutenant-General Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi seven days to explain his June 2026 Pretoria media briefing. Nothing on this page is an allegation against her.
Imtiaz Fazel
Inspector-General of Intelligence (suspended)
South Africa's Inspector-General of Intelligence, the statutory watchdog over the country's intelligence services, and one of the few central figures in this record who has not been able to speak to it. Fazel was drawn into the Crime Intelligence fight in early January 2025, when then police minister Senzo Mchunu instructed his office to investigate in parallel the same issues Mchunu had referred to the Investigating Directorate Against Corruption. Before he was suspended he recommended disciplinary and criminal charges against national commissioner Lieutenant-General Fannie Masemola and Crime Intelligence head Lieutenant-General Dumisani Khumalo over five properties bought by Crime Intelligence for more than R120 million in 2023 and 2024. The State Security Agency revoked his security clearance, and three weeks later, in October 2025, President Cyril Ramaphosa suspended him. In March 2026 the Daily Maverick reported that the President had effectively blocked him from testifying to this commission about those criminal claims. He is challenging both the clearance withdrawal and the suspension in the high court, in an application amaBhungane and News24 reported in July 2026 as showing how central the police minister's office was to the investigations and leaks that led both to this commission and to his own removal. His office's still-classified report has surfaced twice at the commission: IDAC state advocate Drushantha Ramsamy testified on Day 156 that Mchunu arranged for it to be carried to IDAC's chief investigator in the Eastern Cape after the watchdog had refused to release it, and on Day 164 Commissioner Sesi Baloyi confronted MP Fadiel Adams with two contradictory sworn accounts of who had telephoned him from Fazel's office. Fazel has given no evidence to the commission, has answered nothing before it, and is presumed innocent. Nothing here is a finding of any kind against him.
Lieutenant-Gen Peter Jacobs
Former Divisional Commissioner: Inspectorate, South African Police Service; former head of Crime Intelligence
The general whose office safe became a symbol of the alleged cover-up, until the documents explained it. Peter Anthony Jacobs began his police career out of the Non-Statutory Forces in 1985, went on to head SAPS Crime Intelligence, and later served as Divisional Commissioner for the Inspectorate, the division that investigates service complaints against the police. For most of the past year the claim has circulated - originating with National Coloured Congress MP Fadiel Adams - that the six criminal dockets Adams opened against senior Crime Intelligence officers in late 2024 were intercepted and locked away in Jacobs's safe in Pretoria. On 20 August 2026 (Day 163) Commissioner Sandile Khumalo put the paper trail to Adams and established a duller sequence: Adams complained to the police minister on 1 November 2024 that his dockets had been intercepted; the ministry escalated the complaint the same morning; Jacobs's division was given a 48-hour deadline to report; and Colonel Phillips of that division called for the dockets precisely so that he could assess them. Phillips's report of 20 November 2024 found the affidavits in the dockets 'superficial' and 'believed to be hearsay', and recorded four attempts to interview Adams, who admits he brushed the colonel off. Adams accepted the correction on the record: 'I understand and I accept that I'm the one that muddied the water.' Jacobs has not been found to have done anything improper in relation to the dockets, and the commission has made no finding against him. He is presumed innocent.
Major-Gen Feroz Khan
Deputy head, SAPS Crime Intelligence (suspended)
The suspended deputy head of SAPS Crime Intelligence, summoned by the Madlanga Commission to testify from 1 July 2026 over what the commission calls 'very serious allegations' against him. Witnesses have alleged he interfered in the 2021 Aeroton cocaine seizure and was improperly cleared in an internal disciplinary process; he denies wrongdoing. On the night of 28 June 2026, days before his scheduled appearance, he was shot and wounded in an apparent assassination attempt in Houghton, Johannesburg, and could not appear when his testimony was due to begin on 1 July 2026 (Day 130); the commission also rejected his legal team's bid to have parts of his evidence heard in camera. With Khan still hospitalised, the commission began leading evidence against him in his absence from 3 July 2026 (Days 132-133): evidence leader Advocate Adila Hassim SC tabled WhatsApp chats from his seized phone that she says show him facilitating government tenders for tobacco businessman Mohamed 'Mo' Sayed, flagged financial disclosures reflecting a 30-car fleet, and asked investigators to probe his possible link to a 2021 burglary at a journalist's home. On 7 July 2026 (Day 134) the commission detailed alleged unexplained wealth - a property portfolio estimated at about R39 million and some 30 vehicles bought in a single year - and led WhatsApp messages said to show Khan and Mohamed 'Mo' Sayed plotting to trap the then Inspector-General of Intelligence into a false statement so he could be removed; the public portion of the evidence against him then concluded, with a further portion to be heard in camera. He was subpoenaed to appear on Tuesday 1 September 2026 (Day 171) and did not come; only his legal team did. The postponement application that followed turned on a document rather than a diagnosis: evidence leader Advocate Adila Hassim SC produced an affidavit from Khan's treating doctor saying he had altered a medical certificate at the request of Khan's son, moving the return-to-work date from 30 June to 27 June and adding a diagnosis, after which Hassim told the commission 'it was a lie'. Chairperson Justice Mbuyiseli Madlanga refused to grant a postponement outright and instead postponed his evidence to Monday 28 September 2026 at 09:30, excusing him from appearing then only if he voluntarily submits by 8 September to an independent specialist agreed between his lawyers and the evidence leaders who reports that he cannot testify, with his outstanding statement due by 18 September. The day before, on 31 August 2026, the Labour Court struck his urgent bid to halt the SAPS disciplinary process off the roll with costs, and that process had produced a finding of guilt with a recommendation that he be dismissed. On Wednesday 2 September 2026 the police service acted on it: spokesperson Brigadier Athlenda Mathe confirmed that Khan was 'deemed dismissed' under Regulation 9(7)(b) of the SAPS Discipline Regulations for failing to appear at his own expeditious disciplinary process, and on 3 September his lawyers told Eyewitness News they would challenge the decision. On the same day as the dismissal he missed the Kempton Park Magistrate's Court for a second time in the separate illicit precious-metals matter, where the state applied for J50 arrest warrants and the case against him, Gauteng Hawks head Major-General Ebrahim Kadwa and businessman Tariq Downes was postponed to 27 November 2026. He has not yet testified, and everything before the commission remains an allegation subject to the presumption of innocence.
Major-Gen Andre Lincoln
Former head, Western Cape Anti-Gang Unit and Presidential Investigation Task Unit (deceased); named in evidence as Fadiel Adams's source
The retired general whose word set the Crime Intelligence prosecution in motion, and who died before anyone could ask him about it. Andre Lincoln was an uMkhonto weSizwe intelligence officer, a bodyguard to Nelson Mandela, and the head of the Presidential Investigation Task Unit that Mandela established in the 1990s; from 2018 he commanded the Western Cape Anti-Gang Unit, and he was also involved in the investigation that followed the 2020 assassination of detective Charl Kinnear. He had been out of the police service for about three years when, in late 2024, he became - on Fadiel Adams's account - the source of roughly 90 percent of the allegations Adams took to the police minister and then to the Investigating Directorate Against Corruption. Adams told the Madlanga Commission on 20 August 2026 (Day 163) that Lincoln told him his Cape Town dockets had been intercepted, advised him to lay the same charges in another province, gave him the contact for the man who admitted him to Orlando SAPS in Soweto, gave him a telephone number for IDAC, and later advised him not to meet the SAPS inspectorate investigator who was trying to interview him. Adams named none of this to the minister, the Inspector-General of Intelligence or IDAC at the time; he gave Lincoln's name for the first time to Parliament's ad hoc committee, after Lincoln's death, saying: 'I wouldn't have mentioned him if he was alive.' Lincoln died on 30 May 2025, aged 63, after a long illness, and was widely mourned. He has answered none of this and cannot. When the commission put to Adams that Lincoln was either mistaken, misinforming him, or had never said it at all, Adams chose the first: 'I'm going to grudgingly accept that my friend may have been wrong.' Nothing here is a finding against Lincoln, whose reputation rests on a long public record and who is not in a position to answer an untested account of private conversations.
Bevan Loftus
Tow-truck operator and taxi owner, Durban; killed by a SAPS task team in 2023
The Durban tow-truck operator and taxi owner whose death has become the first individual case examined in the Madlanga Commission's KwaZulu-Natal hit-squad phase. He was shot dead with four other people on 1 April 2023 in a flat in Morningside, Durban, in what the South African Police Service recorded as a drug raid and in which 27 rounds were fired. The commission has heard two irreconcilable characterisations of him. His father, former police officer Gregory Loftus, told the commission on 13 August 2026 that he was not a drug dealer, lived modestly off a legitimate towing business, and was killed 'under the guise of a legitimate police operation' at the instance of a tow-truck competitor. Retired SAPS captain Ashley Houston told the commission the same day that he was a notorious figure who had associated with the local Hollywood gang. On Day 157, IPID's Len John alleged that the task team's commander, Captain Deena Govender, was paid more than R2.7 million in connection with his killing. The day before he died, his father had deposed to an affidavit supporting an urgent interdict to stop the police killing him. He is deceased and cannot answer the characterisations made of him; nothing recorded here is a finding about him or about anyone named in connection with his death, and every living person named is presumed innocent.
Julius Malema
EFF leader; Member of Parliament
The leader of the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) and a Member of Parliament. Malema is not a commission witness and has not been charged. His name arises from a supporting affidavit by commission investigator Tshepo Nyatlo, filed in the public court record (page 009124) over Maj-Gen Feroz Khan's seized devices, and from the commission's summons to Khan, which asks him to explain his relationship with Malema. On 7 July 2026 (Day 134), after WhatsApp messages from Khan's seized phone were led alleging that Khan and businessman Mohamed 'Mo' Sayed plotted to trap the then Inspector-General of Intelligence into a false statement, Malema filed a responding affidavit - read into the commission record - denying that he conspired to orchestrate the removal of Dr Setlhomamaru Dintwe and saying he could not verify the authenticity of the messages. Malema has publicly described Khan as a longtime acquaintance from their ANC days and denied any wrongdoing. These are untested allegations in court papers; no findings have been made and Malema is presumed innocent.
Hangwani 'Morgan' Maumela
Businessman; named by the Special Investigating Unit as the central figure in the alleged Tembisa Hospital procurement fraud
A businessman who has been a name inside the Madlanga Commission's evidence for months without ever having been a witness before it. The Special Investigating Unit has identified Maumela as the central figure in an alleged procurement fraud at Tembisa Hospital in Gauteng, in which, on the SIU's account, a network of front companies secured more than 1,700 irregular purchase orders and diverted sums reported at up to R820 million. He entered this commission's record sideways, through other people's testimony. On Days 73 and 74, in March 2026, the North West businessman Suleiman Carrim described multimillion-rand payments running between himself, Vusimuzi 'Cat' Matlala and Maumela, including more than R42 million paid to a trading entity linked to Maumela's sister, and the evidence leaders put it that Carrim and Maumela appeared to be the funders behind Matlala's R360 million Medicare24 tender. On 25 August 2026 (Day 166) Matlala gave the commission his own account for the first time, after evidence leader Advocate Mahlape Sello SC established that he could not claim the privilege against self-incrimination on the subject because he is not a suspect in the SIU's Tembisa case. Matlala described a joint venture with Maumela that began around 2015 or 2016 over a shared enthusiasm for sports cars, in which each man put roughly R1 million into a joint supplier account and they answered requests for quotation from the Gauteng Department of Health through a company between them, each taking ten percent of the other's deals, for something in the order of R5 million over five years. Matlala also said he introduced Maumela to the late taxi boss Jotham 'King Mswazi' Msibi, named in evidence as a former leader of the alleged 'Big Five' cartel, over a Pagani Huayra that Maumela wanted to sell. Every allegation on this page is untested. Maumela has not given evidence to the Madlanga Commission, has not been publicly summoned by it, and has not answered any of this before it. He is presumed innocent, and this page records what has been said about him, not a finding.
Brig. Dineo Mokwele
Head of Technical Support Services, SAPS Crime Intelligence
The officer whose appointment was the entire Crime Intelligence prosecution. Brigadier Dineo Mokwele, a former BMW employee who holds a mechatronics-engineering diploma and an industrial-engineering degree, was appointed to a brigadier-level post running Crime Intelligence's Technical Support Services unit. The Investigating Directorate Against Corruption alleged that she lacked the qualifications the post required, that the recruitment process had been manipulated, and that the appointment was part of an attempt to capture the division. On 26 June 2025 she was arrested with Lieutenant-General Dumisani Khumalo and five other senior officers on fraud and corruption charges. Every part of that case has since been questioned before the Madlanga Commission. IDAC's own Deputy Director of Public Prosecutions, Advocate Peter Serunye, testified on Day 153 that the corruption count collapsed at the first question because 'it was not apparent what she could offer the generals in return, nor what unlawful act she was to perform'. Then IDAC head Advocate Andrea Johnson conceded she had never personally verified Mokwele's qualifications before charges were brought, and testified that Mokwele did hold qualifications as an industrial engineer suited to the technical support role. On Day 164 the complainant whose referral founded the case, MP Fadiel Adams, told the commission he had not known her name when he laid the charges: he knew her as 'the BMW lady'. The National Prosecuting Authority provisionally withdrew the charges on 27 July 2026 and withdrew them unconditionally in the Pretoria Magistrate's Court on 21 August 2026, the matter barred from re-enrolment without the express written approval of the National Director of Public Prosecutions. She has never given evidence at the commission and no court has considered the allegations against her. She is presumed innocent and nothing here is a finding.
Katiso 'KT' Molefe
Businessman; named in testimony as an alleged Big Five figure
A Johannesburg businessman who has run through this commission's evidence since its earliest sittings without ever appearing before it. Crime Intelligence head Lieutenant General Dumisani Khumalo named him in September 2025 among the alleged leaders of the Gauteng syndicate the commission's record calls the 'Big Five'. He was named again on 18 August 2026 (Day 161) in WhatsApp material recovered from the phone of the late taxi boss Jotham 'King Mswazi' Msibi, as an alleged party to a January 2023 plan to buy a cellphone interception device from a Czech supplier on the representation that the purchaser was the South African Police Service. Separately, he was arrested at his Sandhurst home on 6 December 2024 by members of the KwaZulu-Natal Political Killings Task Team and the Special Task Force in connection with the murder of Vereeniging engineer Armand Swart, and that arrest has itself become a sustained subject of the inquiry: from October 2025 officers described Hawks units arriving at the scene, and on 27 August 2026 (Day 168) retired Hawks national head Lieutenant General Godfrey Lebeya gave evidence that he did not know Molefe and had directed managers to verify a claim that people were impersonating the Hawks there. Molefe is an accused, not a witness. He has not given evidence to the Madlanga Commission, has not answered any of the allegations before it, has not been convicted of anything, and is presumed innocent. This page records what has been said about him rather than any finding.
Ignatius Mothakathi
Named in evidence as one of five men in a photograph the commission links to the alleged 'Big Five'
One of the five men identified in a photograph that evidence leader Advocate Lee Segeels-Ncube put before the Madlanga Commission on 2 September 2026 (Day 172). Per SABC News and EWN, the image was recovered from the phone of murder-accused businessman Katiso 'KT' Molefe, and the commission's evidence is that it shows Molefe, private security businessman Steve Motsumi, Mothakathi, the man known as 'King Nyambose', and the late taxi boss Jotham 'Mswazi' Msibi - the grouping Crime Intelligence has called the 'Big Five'. That is the whole of what the public record before this commission says about him: he is a man in a photograph, named by an evidence leader, put to a witness who said he did not know him. He has not been charged before this commission, has never given evidence to it, and has not been asked to answer anything. A photograph of people together is not evidence of an agreement between them. Nothing on this page is a finding of any kind and he is presumed innocent.
Steve Motsumi
Security company owner; named in evidence alongside the late Jotham Msibi
A private security businessman who has surfaced repeatedly in this commission's documentary evidence without ever having been a witness before it. He appears on three separate strands of the record. First, on the WhatsApp material extracted from the late taxi boss Jotham 'King Mswazi' Msibi's phone and led by chief evidence leader Advocate Matthew Chaskalson SC on 18 August 2026 (Day 161), where Motsumi is alleged to have been party with Msibi, suspended SAPS sergeant Fannie Nkosi and murder-accused businessman Katiso 'KT' Molefe to a plan to buy an IMSI catcher - a 'grabber' cellphone interception device - from a Czech supplier on the representation that the purchaser was the South African Police Service, and then resell it in eSwatini; the same evidence showed him sending Msibi the contact details of then Ekurhuleni city manager Dr Imogen Mashazi on 23 September 2023, two days before Msibi called her. Second, in evidence from a protected witness recorded here as Witness F, where police dockets and confidential intelligence were said to have been shared with Motsumi, including material on a cash-in-transit investigation. Third, as a lender to Vusimuzi 'Cat' Matlala: on 25 August 2026 (Day 166) Matlala confirmed a R5 million loan from Motsumi in 2024, formalised in an acknowledgement of debt, applied to renovations tied to a lease at the SAPS Pretoria West College and repaid in 2025, and an unsuccessful approach for a further R20 million in 2025 to keep the R360 million Medicare24 police contract alive after the SAPS threatened cancellation over non-performance. Every allegation on this page is untested. Motsumi has not given evidence to the Madlanga Commission and has not answered any of it before it. He is presumed innocent, and this page records what has been said about him rather than any finding.
Jotham 'King Mswazi' Msibi
Taxi boss and security company owner (deceased); named in evidence as a former 'Big Five' figure
The late taxi boss whose cellphone has become one of the richest single sources of evidence before the Madlanga Commission. Msibi, who owned the security company Themy Styles and was a director of Tucofin, was described in evidence led on 18 August 2026 (Day 161) as a former leader of the alleged 'Big Five' cartel. He is dead and can answer none of it. Chief evidence leader Advocate Matthew Chaskalson SC spent the whole of Day 161 - a sitting with no live witness, after Vusimuzi 'Cat' Matlala's testimony was postponed - leading WhatsApp messages, photographs and video extracted from Msibi's devices. The material spans an alleged plan to buy a 'grabber' cellphone interception device from a Czech supplier by representing the buyer as the South African Police Service and reselling it in eSwatini; an Ekurhuleni integrated rapid public transport network contract Msibi identified for businessman Ze Nxumalo in April 2023, months before a linked company won it; a call to then Ekurhuleni city manager Dr Imogen Mashazi two days after Steve Motsumi sent him her contact details; a previously unidentified joint venture between Suleiman Carrim's Ziggy Investments and Transnational Coaches tied to subsidised bus contracts; and a cannabis operation at Jack Frost Pharmaceuticals in Germiston that appeared to be producing before its licence issued. On Day 160 Matlala told the commission he knew three Gauteng businessmen linked to alleged criminal syndicates, Msibi among them. Everything here is an allegation drawn from messages on a dead man's phone. None of it has been tested, no court has considered it, the living people named have not answered it before the commission, and all of them are presumed innocent.
Clive Naicker
Tow-truck operator, KwaZulu-Natal
A KwaZulu-Natal tow-truck operator named in evidence before the Madlanga Commission on 13 August 2026 (Day 158) by Gregory Loftus, the father of tow-truck operator Bevan Loftus, who told the commission his son 'was murdered by the police under the guise of a legitimate police operation and at the instance of Clive Naiker, a competitor of Bevan in the tow truck industry and alleged drug dealer'. The allegation sits alongside IPID's evidence the previous day that the task team's commander received more than R2.5 million from the owner of a tow-truck company between August 2022 and December 2023 and more than R2.7 million connected to the killing. Naicker has not given evidence before the commission, has not answered any of this, and no court has considered it. He is presumed innocent, and nothing recorded here is a finding of any kind against him.
Mavuso Ntandane
Named in evidence as an associate of Police Minister Senzo Mchunu
A man the Madlanga Commission had not heard of until the afternoon of 21 August 2026, when Lieutenant-Colonel Deenadayalan Govender of the Hawks named him from the witness box. Govender's evidence, reported by the Daily Maverick and IOL, is that Ntandane is close to Police Minister Senzo Mchunu, that he approached Govender repeatedly and pressed him to give evidence implicating KwaZulu-Natal provincial commissioner Lieutenant-General Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi in a series of police shootings, and that at a meeting the day before Govender testified he telephoned the minister and handed Govender the phone. Govender said he holds a recording of his conversation with Ntandane. Nothing in that account has been tested by the commission. Ntandane has not given evidence, has not been summoned on the public record, and has not publicly answered the allegation. He is presumed innocent, and this page records what was said about him, not a finding.
Mthethwa, known as 'King Nyambose'
Named in evidence in a WhatsApp message to the former Hawks head and in the Day 172 'Big Five' photograph
The man referred to in evidence before the Madlanga Commission as 'King Nyambose'. He enters this record twice on the same day. First, in a WhatsApp message sent to retired Hawks national head Lieutenant General Godfrey Lebeya on 6 December 2024 - the night murder-accused businessman Katiso 'KT' Molefe was arrested at his Sandhurst home and Hawks units unexpectedly arrived - by the businessman who uses the name Malcolm X. Per The Citizen and EWN the message read: 'Thank you for sending people who verified these gentlemen are policemen and King Nyambose really appreciates all your efforts general.' Second, in the photograph recovered from Molefe's phone and shown to the commission on 2 September 2026 (Day 172), which the commission's evidence identifies as depicting five alleged 'Big Five' figures including him. The reporting does not agree on his first name: SABC News and EWN name him as Andrew 'Boy' Mthethwa, while TimesLIVE and The Citizen render him as Jabu Mthethwa. The archive therefore publishes the surname and the alias and records the discrepancy rather than resolving it on one outlet's word. Lebeya's evidence was that he does not know him, has never met him, and never asked Malcolm X who he was; chairperson Justice Mbuyiseli Madlanga asked him what he was being thanked for. Nothing here has been tested, no allegation of specific conduct by him has been put to a witness who could answer it, and he is presumed innocent.
Mohammed Sayed
Businessman; alleged co-director, Conalinks
A Johannesburg businessman alleged by the Madlanga Commission to be at the centre of a network linking SAPS Crime Intelligence to illegal tobacco trading, irregular government procurement, and political interference. He is not a commission witness and has not testified; the references to him originate from a supporting affidavit filed by commission investigator Tshepo Nyatlo (page 009124 of the court record) in the proceedings over Maj-Gen Feroz Khan's seized devices. On 3-6 July 2026 (Days 132-133) the commission led the underlying WhatsApp chats in Khan's absence: evidence leader Advocate Adila Hassim SC put it that Khan acted as a 'willing facilitator' of a 2021 SAPS Covid-19 PPE tender and a police IT contract on Sayed's behalf. These are untested allegations; Sayed is presumed innocent.
Michael van Wyk
Chief Executive, Medicare24 Holdings
The chief executive of Medicare24 Holdings, the private emergency-medical company awarded a controversial multi-hundred-million-rand South African Police Service health-services tender. Van Wyk was subpoenaed to appear before the Madlanga Commission on 22 June 2026 over his dealings with attempted-murder-accused tenderpreneur Vusimuzi 'Cat' Matlala and with suspended EMPD deputy chief Julius Mkhwanazi, but did not testify: his legal team obtained a postponement after he suffered panic attacks and was admitted for psychiatric care. Chief evidence leader Advocate Matthew Chaskalson SC led WhatsApp chats, voice notes and videos in his absence. He may file a supplementary affidavit by 6 July 2026. Everything below is an allegation or contested evidence; he denies wrongdoing and is presumed innocent.
Capt. Felani Zungu
SAPS captain, Tactical Operations Management Section (TOMS)
A SAPS captain attached to the Tactical Operations Management Section (TOMS) who has emerged as a hinge figure in the Aeroton testimony. According to Witness I, Matlala's informant tip-offs to TOMS came through Zungu, and it was Zungu who arranged the safe house - later found to be a Matlala family property - where Witness I sheltered after a 2023 attempt on his life. Crime Intelligence head Lt-Gen Dumisani Khumalo previously flagged Zungu as a possible 'double agent' after his contact details were found in Vusimuzi 'Cat' Matlala's phone records. He is not a commission witness in his own right; these are untested allegations and he is presumed innocent.