Witness

Bevan Loftus

Tow-truck operator and taxi owner, Durban; killed by a SAPS task team in 2023 · Durban, KwaZulu-Natal

Named in evidence · deceased

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.

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.