Witness
Former officer, Johannesburg Metropolitan Police Department · Johannesburg
Convicted
The JMPD officer at the centre of the case the commission used on Day 194 to test what happens to an investigation into police corruption. On the evidence before the commission, in August 2023 Mphahlele stopped the businessman Nawazish Ali Raja and his wife on Crownwood Road in Johannesburg while driving a marked JMPD vehicle, found a bag holding R1.5 million in cash they were carrying to buy stock, accused Raja of money laundering, told the couple to follow him to a police station and then drove off with the money. He was identified by the couple at an identity parade at Hillbrow Police Station on 18 August 2023. Per SABC News and the JMPD's own account he has since been convicted and imprisoned; per a September 2026 report he was convicted and awaiting sentencing. Warrant Officer Phuti Mashala of the Hawks told the commission on Day 194 that four days after the robbery Mphahlele offered the investigators R250 000 to make the docket disappear, and that the offer was arranged through other officers. Mphahlele's conviction is a determination of the criminal courts and not of this commission. He has given no evidence here and has answered nothing before it.
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.
Their role
On the evidence of Warrant Officer Phuti Mashala and the account of the complainant, Mphahlele stopped a grey Mercedes-Benz on Crownwood Road in August 2023, took a bag containing R1.5 million, named first Booysens and then Johannesburg Central as the station to follow him to, and drove off into traffic. The complainant said he heard Mphahlele tell a woman on the telephone that he had found the money.
Mashala told the commission on Day 194 that on 14 August 2023 he and Captain N.J. Tauatswala met Mphahlele at a Sasol garage, where Mphahlele offered R250 000 to make the docket disappear. On the evidence the payment was to be arranged through a senior JMPD officer and handed over by a Hawks captain. This allegation has not been tested before this commission.
Per SABC News, Mphahlele has been convicted; per Inside Politics the JMPD says he was convicted and imprisoned; a September 2026 report described him as convicted and awaiting sentence. That outcome belongs to the criminal courts. This commission has made no finding about him, and the officers alleged to have tried to protect him have been convicted of nothing.
Connections
Investigator, Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation (Hawks)
Mashala led the Hawks investigation and told the commission on Day 194 that Mphahlele offered the investigators R250 000 to make the docket disappear, and that the entrapment operation that followed collapsed.
View profile →His supervisor, named in the evidenceInspector, Johannesburg Metropolitan Police Department
Per Inside Politics, investigators identified Inspector Emma Phakoane, Mphahlele's supervisor, as the woman he telephoned during the roadside stop, and Mashala told the commission he believed she was directly involved. Phakoane has answered nothing on this record, has been convicted of nothing and is presumed innocent.
View profile →The internal affairs head who first put the case to the commissionHead of internal affairs, Johannesburg Metropolitan Police Department
De Beer's Day 173 evidence covered Mphahlele's conviction and her untested allegation that a JMPD inspector offered a Hawks officer R550 000 to secure his release.
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