Named in evidence in a WhatsApp message to the former Hawks head and in the Day 172 'Big Five' photograph · Gauteng
Named in evidence · has not testified · presumed innocent
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.
King NyamboseNyamboseMthethwaAndrew MthethwaJabu MthethwaBig FiveMadlanga Commission
This profile summarises testimony and evidence given on the public record before the Madlanga Commission of Inquiry. It restates allegations as presented at the hearings and is not a finding of guilt, liability, or wrongdoing by any person.
Awaiting appearanceNo portrait on the public record yet
Their role
What the record says
Named in the 6 December 2024 thank-you message to the Hawks national head (Day 172)
Per The Citizen and EWN, the commission put to Lebeya on Day 172 a WhatsApp message sent to him on the night of the Sandhurst arrest by the businessman who uses the name Malcolm X: 'Thank you for sending people who verified these gentlemen are policemen and King Nyambose really appreciates all your efforts general,' followed by 'It is a pity the police you sent were not allowed inside the yard and the house.' Lebeya said he did not engage with it - 'I was not really interested in the message itself' and 'I did not ask him who is this King Nyambose' - and that he has never met him. Madlanga pressed: 'What were you being thanked for? And who on Earth is this Nyambose?' The message is evidence that a third party was being thanked through that channel. It is not evidence of what, if anything, he did. Untested; presumed innocent.
Identified as one of the five men in the photograph from Molefe's phone (Day 172)
Per SABC News, evidence leader Advocate Lee Segeels-Ncube identified the five men in a photograph recovered from Katiso Molefe's phone as Molefe, Steve Motsumi, Ignatius Mothakathi, Andrew 'Boy' Mthethwa - also known as 'King Nyambose' - and Jotham 'Mswazi' Msibi. TimesLIVE reports the same photograph as taken on 21 June 2022 and names him as Jabu Mthethwa. Per SABC News, when Segeels-Ncube put to Lebeya an allegation that Mthethwa had interfered with a Hawks operation, Lebeya's answer was 'I understand that it is possible'. That is a witness conceding a possibility, not evidence of the fact. Nobody has determined anything about him and he is presumed innocent.