Witness

Colonel Brian Padayachee

Senior investigator, Investigating Directorate Against Corruption (IDAC) · Pretoria

Testified · suspended by the NDPP

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.

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Brian PadayacheeColonel PadayacheeIDACIDAC investigatorCrime IntelligenceMadlanga 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.

Colonel Brian Padayachee · Testified · suspended by the NDPP

Their role

What the record says

Suspended by the NDPP pending a disciplinary process (30 July 2026)

On 30 July 2026, in the wake of the evidence heard at the commission across the preceding fortnight, National Director of Public Prosecutions Advocate Andy Mothibi suspended Padayachee and investigator Suneel Bellochun, while Justice Minister Mmamoloko Kubayi suspended IDAC chief investigator Dylan Perumal - all three pending disciplinary processes. Reporting at the time recorded that the three had been accused before the commission of manipulating cases, including the fabrication of witness statements and an abuse of the directorate's powers. Those are allegations that none of the three has yet answered from the stand; a precautionary suspension is not a finding, and all three are presumed innocent. The same day, Kubayi and Mothibi placed IDAC under a six-month reform programme including skills and lifestyle audits of all 212 employees, a review of its cases before the courts and a review of its standard operating procedures.

Defended the case against Khumalo as backed by strong evidence

Padayachee told the commission that IDAC 'has sufficient evidence to sustain the charges in the criminal case against Khumalo and other officials at Crime Intelligence', rejecting suggestions that the investigation was politically driven or that the directorate lacked grounds to proceed. The charges are untested; Khumalo is presumed innocent.

Denied a so-called 'Khan-IDAC cabal'

Answering MK Party MP Vusi Shongwe's claim of an 'Indian cabal' said to link IDAC head Advocate Andrea Johnson, senior investigator Suneel Bellochun, suspended Crime Intelligence deputy head Major-General Feroz Khan and himself, Padayachee said: 'If such a cabal exists, I am not a party to it. I have never investigated such because I don't know of it and neither am I involved in it.' He confirmed he knew Khan from earlier work together in Crime Intelligence.

Said Mkhwanazi knew of, and had no issue with, Khumalo's arrest

Padayachee testified that KwaZulu-Natal commissioner Lieutenant-General Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi - who has publicly criticised the IDAC probe - had in their interactions before the arrest shown no issue with the case against Khumalo and other Crime Intelligence officers, had filed an affidavit, and was aware the arrests were coming, saying they 'must face their own situations'.

Conceded he lacked the founding complaint when the case began

Under cross-examination he accepted he did not have complainant MP Fadiel Adams's original signed affidavit when the investigation commenced, relying on an oral briefing and receiving the sworn statement later - which chairperson Mbuyiseli Madlanga called 'highly improbable' for a case against top police officials.

Could not justify treating the Mokwele appointment as a crime

Padayachee struggled to explain IDAC's mandate to second-guess a SAPS appointment. Madlanga called the directorate's theory a 'quantum leap in logic'; Commissioner Advocate Sesi Baloyi SC framed the founding complaint as a human-resources dispute with no allegation of corruption; and the record showed Brigadier Mokwele was charged over conduct investigators believed she might commit in future.

On the stand

Appears across 3 hearing days

Connections

How this witness links to the record

Denied an alleged 'cabal' with him

Major-General Feroz Khan

Deputy head, SAPS Crime Intelligence (suspended)

Padayachee rejected MK MP Vusi Shongwe's claim of a 'Khan-IDAC cabal' said to include Khan, saying he was not part of any such group while confirming he knew Khan from prior Crime Intelligence work. Untested allegation; both presumed relevant only as named, not as a finding.

View profile →Lead investigator on the case against him

Lieutenant-General Dumisani Khumalo

Head, SAPS Crime Intelligence

Padayachee ran IDAC's fraud and corruption case against the Crime Intelligence head and defended it across Days 139-141 as evidence-led, while the commission questioned its foundation. The NPA withdrew the charges on 27 July 2026. Untested; both presumed innocent.

View profile →IDAC colleague on the same docket

Advocate Drushantha Ramsamy

State advocate, Investigating Directorate Against Corruption (IDAC)

Padayachee investigated and Ramsamy prosecuted the Crime Intelligence matter. On Day 151 she gave evidence about how the suspects were selected; he was suspended by the NDPP the same day pending a disciplinary process. Untested; both presumed innocent.

View profile →His director; both now out of the directorate

Advocate Andrea Johnson

Head, Investigating Directorate Against Corruption (IDAC)

Padayachee ran the case Johnson authorised. She resigned on 26 July 2026 and he was suspended on 30 July. Neither step is a finding; both are presumed innocent.

View profile →IDAC colleague who intends to lay charges against him

Mantsha Robert Raphesu

Investigator, Investigating Directorate Against Corruption (IDAC)

Raphesu told the commission on Day 152 that he intends to open a criminal case against Padayachee and chief investigator Dylan Perumal, alleging they targeted him after he objected to how the Crime Intelligence investigation was run. Padayachee has not answered the allegation; untested, both presumed innocent.

View profile →The prosecutor who found him at an unprepared bail hearing

Advocate Peter Serunye

Deputy Director of Public Prosecutions, Investigating Directorate Against Corruption (IDAC)

Serunye testified on Day 153 that at a June 2025 court appearance he found a junior state advocate handling the bail hearing alone with only Padayachee present, the J15 form incomplete and no bail affidavit in existence. Untested; both presumed innocent.

View profile →Investigated on his complaint without the signed affidavit

Fadiel Adams

Member of Parliament and leader, National Coloured Congress

Padayachee conceded on Day 141 that he did not have Adams's original signed section 27 affidavit when the investigation commenced, relying on an oral briefing and receiving the sworn statement later - which chairperson Mbuyiseli Madlanga called 'highly improbable'. Untested; both presumed innocent.

View profile →

Sources