National Head, Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation (Hawks), 2018 to 2025 · Pretoria
Testified · part-heard
The retired national head of the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation, the specialised unit known as the Hawks, which he led from 2018 until his retirement in 2025. He came to the Madlanga Commission's record long before he came to its witness box. From October 2025 a succession of police witnesses described the night of 6 December 2024, when members of the KwaZulu-Natal Political Killings Task Team and the Special Task Force arrested murder-accused businessman Katiso 'KT' Molefe at his Sandhurst home and Hawks units unexpectedly arrived; in November 2025 Major General Kadwa testified that Lebeya had telephoned him to ask whether the Hawks were running an operation in Sandhurst, that he did not know where Lebeya had obtained the allegation that impostors were present, and that it was the first time in his career the national head had phoned him about a live operation. Justice Mbuyiseli Madlanga said then that Lebeya would almost certainly be called. He testified for the first time on 27 August 2026 (Day 168), appearing at his own expense after the South African Police Service refused his application for state-funded legal representation, and denied the allegation on its premise: he does not know Molefe, was contacted instead by a Johannesburg businessman who uses the name Malcolm X, directed two senior managers to verify a claim that people were impersonating the Hawks in his name, and has never instructed members of the directorate to interrupt a legitimate police operation. He also told the commission that private investigator Paul O'Sullivan sought an update from him on the classified Phala Phala investigation and was refused, and confirmed that he had discussed misconduct allegations against then IDAC head Advocate Andrea Johnson with then National Director of Public Prosecutions Advocate Shamila Batohi. He is part-heard. Nothing on this page is a finding, every allegation is untested, and everyone named is presumed innocent.
Godfrey LebeyaSeswantsho Godfrey LebeyaLebeyaDPCIHawksDirectorate for Priority Crime InvestigationMadlanga 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
Alleged to have sent Hawks members to interfere with the Molefe arrest (Day 168 answer)
The central allegation he was called to answer is that on 6 December 2024 he caused Hawks units to be deployed to Katiso 'KT' Molefe's Sandhurst home while the KwaZulu-Natal Political Killings Task Team and the Special Task Force were arresting him, and that the deployment amounted to interference in a lawful operation. Answering it on Day 168, Lebeya denied the premise: 'I do not know Mr Katiso Molefe. I was not contacted by Mr Katiso Molefe; I was contacted by Malcolm X.' He said he directed two senior managers to verify the allegation that persons were claiming to be members of the DPCI and to have been sent by him, and added: 'I have never instructed members of the DPCI to interrupt a legitimate police operation.' Untested; he denies wrongdoing and is presumed innocent.
The impostor justification, and more than thirty known cases (Day 168)
Pressed on why a call from a private businessman was enough to move Hawks units at all, Lebeya put it as a duty rather than a favour. Per eNCA he said he was aware of more than thirty cases in which people had impersonated Hawks officials, that he first met Malcolm X in April 2023, and that he regarded him as neither friend nor enemy. His formulation: 'A reasonable national head who is aware of the existence of imposters will not sit back and do nothing.' The commission has not ruled on whether that duty extends to deploying operational units to an address rather than establishing from within the police whether an authorised operation was under way.
Put the failure on the chain of command (Day 168)
Lebeya told the commission that the operation to arrest Molefe was never communicated to him and that he would not have deployed Hawks members had he known about it. Per EWN he located the obligation elsewhere: 'The obligation is put on the provincial commissioner, so they shall have discussed with General Khumalo: let us inform the national head if needed.' Read as an explanation it answers the allegation; read as an allegation of its own it puts a retired national head on the record saying a major takedown was run without telling the Hawks. Lieutenant General Dumisani Khumalo has not answered this account before the commission and is presumed innocent.
Refused Paul O'Sullivan an update on the Phala Phala investigation (Day 168)
Per SABC News, Lebeya testified that private investigator Paul O'Sullivan approached him seeking an update on the Phala Phala investigation while the matter was classified, and that he refused: 'I can't report to any other person about the progress of matters in the DPCI.' He said he questioned why a person who was not a lawyer in the matter would be asking, and that when the approach was made O'Sullivan indicated he was sitting with Dr Bejani Chauke, a political adviser to President Cyril Ramaphosa, and referred to him as a friend. Lebeya's own reading of it was cautious: 'I just felt somebody else was asking me to provide him with the status of the matter.' That is one witness's untested impression of a conversation. Neither O'Sullivan nor Chauke has answered it before the commission and both are presumed innocent.
Confirmed he took the Andrea Johnson complaint to Shamila Batohi (Day 168)
In July 2026 the commission heard from retired Hawks Colonel Kobus Roelofse that a complaint about the then head of the Investigating Directorate Against Corruption, Advocate Andrea Johnson, was brought to Lebeya, who raised it with the then National Director of Public Prosecutions, Advocate Shamila Batohi, and asked for an independent prosecutor to be appointed; and that Johnson subsequently appeared to know both the complaint and the complainant's identity. Per SABC News, Lebeya confirmed on Day 168 that he discussed the allegations against Johnson with Batohi. That closes one link in the chain from the person who forged it, without deciding the contested part of it. Johnson denies the surrounding allegations; Batohi has not given evidence to this commission on the point; both are presumed innocent.
Appeared at his own expense after the police refused legal funding (Day 168)
Per The Citizen, Lebeya's attorney Eric Nwedo told the commission that his client was appearing at his own cost. Lebeya applied to the South African Police Service for state-funded legal representation on 12 November 2025 and was refused on 6 January 2026. Nwedo argued that the deciding official, Deputy National Commissioner Lieutenant General Tebello Mosikili, had a conflict of interest because she had previously served under Lebeya, and called the reasons frivolous, singling out the claim that 'his version differs with the version of other Saps witnesses' as implying that the police expected its witnesses to align. He noted that Lebeya had eventually been funded for the Khampepe Commission after an initial refusal. Justice Madlanga said the commission had no power to direct the police to reconsider and that the remedy was a review or a challenge: 'I do not think we can come to the doctor's assistance.'
“A reasonable national head who is aware of the existence of imposters will not sit back and do nothing.”
Lieutenant General Godfrey Lebeya to the Madlanga Commission (Day 168, 27 August 2026), per eNCA, explaining why a phone call from a private businessman about supposed Hawks impersonators at Katiso Molefe's Sandhurst home was enough for him to act. He said he was aware of more than thirty cases of people impersonating Hawks officials. The allegation that he interfered in the arrest is untested and he denies it.