State advocate, Investigating Directorate Against Corruption (IDAC) · Pretoria
Testified · part-heard
The state advocate inside the Investigating Directorate Against Corruption who prosecuted alongside the directorate's leadership on the Crime Intelligence docket - and who, on 30 July 2026 (Day 151), took the stand at the Madlanga Commission and testified 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. 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. 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. She is a witness giving evidence, not an accused; her account is untested, and everyone she names is presumed innocent. Her evidence is part-heard and resumes on 4 August 2026.
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
Played a recording of Johnson allegedly telling her to leave the country
The centrepiece of her evidence was a cellphone recording she made of a call with Advocate Andrea Johnson on 26 July 2026 - the day Johnson wrote to the National Director of Public Prosecutions asking to be released from her post. Played in open session, it captured Johnson saying of the commission 'it's going to be a shitshow', dismissing a legal point with 'this is Basic Law 101, I'm surprised you don't know it', and - on what Ramsamy should do if the commission called her - 'if they call you, leave the country'. The evidence leaders put it that Johnson had sought to devise a way for Ramsamy not to testify. Johnson did not know she was being recorded and has not yet answered the allegation from the stand; it is untested and she is presumed innocent.
Alleged 'Project Diversion' targeted Masemola and Khumalo
Ramsamy testified that Johnson personally spearheaded an investigation known inside the directorate as 'Project Diversion', aimed at national commissioner General Fannie Masemola and Crime Intelligence head Lieutenant-General Dumisani Khumalo, and she characterised it as an 'orchestrated attack' on the two police leaders. Masemola was charged on 21 April 2026 with Public Finance Management Act offences over the alleged irregular award of the R360-million Medicare24 contract; the Khumalo case was provisionally withdrawn by the NPA on 27 July 2026. The allegation is untested and everyone named is presumed innocent.
The suspect list on a pinkish-purple sheet
She told the commission that on 5 December 2024 Johnson handed her a list of suspects written on a pinkish-purple sheet of paper with the words 'these are the suspects, Chief and I discussed who is to be included' - 'Chief' being IDAC chief investigator Dylan Perumal. If accepted, the sequence would reverse the order a lawful investigation follows, with the suspects settled before the evidence. It has not been accepted; it is her account and those named are entitled to answer it.
A section 27 document that did not match the affidavit she was given
Ramsamy said she received a section 27 referral affidavit from Johnson on 5 December 2024 - the instrument that founds an IDAC investigation - and that a version of that document put before the commission during Johnson's own evidence differed from the one she had been given. She described her reaction as 'my heart dropped to my stomach'. It sits alongside the disputed 'A1' statement heard on Day 148, in which she was one of the two officials whose recorded voice notes challenged the paperwork. Untested.
'Flip-Flop, Knee-Jerk' and how instructions changed
She testified that IDAC staff nicknamed Johnson 'Flip-Flop, Knee-Jerk' because her instructions changed repeatedly through a single day, and that they changed after Johnson consulted chief investigator Dylan Perumal. She said Johnson constantly deviated from the directorate's standard operating procedures - the procedures Johnson had told the commission did not exist - and that it was easy inside IDAC to manipulate statements and to decide who the suspects were, how investigations should proceed, who the witnesses would be and what they would say. Untested; those named are presumed innocent.
Advocate Drushantha Ramsamy to the Madlanga Commission (Day 151, 30 July 2026), describing her reaction when a section 27 document put before the commission differed from the affidavit she says Advocate Andrea Johnson gave her on 5 December 2024. Untested; all named are presumed innocent.