Witness
Former police officer; father of Bevan Loftus · Durban, KwaZulu-Natal
Testified
A former South African Police Service officer, and the father of Durban tow-truck operator Bevan Loftus, who was shot dead with four other people by a SAPS task team on 1 April 2023. He was the first witness the Madlanga Commission heard in the family strand of its KwaZulu-Natal hit-squad phase, giving evidence on 13 August 2026 (Day 158) led by evidence leader Advocate Sikhakhane SC. The core of his account is documentary: on 31 March 2023, the day before the shooting, he deposed to an affidavit supporting an urgent High Court interdict application seeking to restrain Captain Deena Govender and the SAPS from murdering his son, and, as he put it to the commission, 'a day after the application was issued, Captain Deena Govender and a group of SAPS officers under his command murdered my son anyway'. He alleged the killing was carried out 'under the guise of a legitimate police operation and at the instance of Clive Naiker, a competitor of Bevan in the tow truck industry and alleged drug dealer'. He rejected the police account that his son was a drug dealer, said Bevan lived modestly off a legitimate towing business, and told the commission the drug narrative was assembled afterwards to justify the shooting. He also described police harassment of his son that he said began in 2022, and told the commission five of his son's drivers had been shot since 2020. He is a bereaved family member giving evidence, not an accused. Everything he alleges is untested, no court has yet determined it, and every officer and person he names 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.
Their role
On 31 March 2023 Gregory Loftus deposed to an affidavit supporting an urgent application to interdict Captain Deena Govender and the SAPS from murdering his son, who had gone into hiding after being warned. Bevan Loftus was shot dead the following day. The sequence is documentary; the allegation that the police acted unlawfully is untested and the officers named are presumed innocent.
He told the commission his son 'was murdered by the police under the guise of a legitimate police operation and at the instance of Clive Naiker, a competitor of Bevan in the tow truck industry and alleged drug dealer'. Clive Naicker has not answered this before the commission. Untested; he is presumed innocent.
Gregory Loftus testified that his son was not a drug dealer and was not in the business of killing people, that he lived modestly on the income of a legitimate towing business, and that the drug narrative was constructed after the fact to justify the shooting. Retired SAPS captain Ashley Houston gave the commission a contrary characterisation the same day, describing Bevan Loftus as a notorious figure associated with the local Hollywood gang. Both accounts are before the commission and neither has been determined.
He described police harassment of his son that he said began in 2022, and told the commission that five of Bevan's drivers had been shot since 2020 - the wider violence in the KwaZulu-Natal tow-truck industry that IPID's Len John had described to the commission the previous day. Untested.
On the stand
Connections
Tow-truck operator and taxi owner, Durban; killed by a SAPS task team in 2023
Bevan Loftus was shot dead by a SAPS task team on 1 April 2023, the day after his father deposed to an affidavit seeking to interdict the police from killing him.
View profile →Names him as responsible for his son's deathHead of the KwaZulu-Natal cash-in-transit task team, South African Police Service
Gregory Loftus told the commission that Captain Deena Govender and officers under his command killed his son the day after the interdict application was issued. Govender has not testified and has answered none of it; untested, presumed innocent.
View profile →Alleges he procured the killingTow-truck operator, KwaZulu-Natal
He told the commission his son was killed 'at the instance of Clive Naiker', a tow-truck competitor and alleged drug dealer. Naicker has not answered this before the commission; untested, presumed innocent.
View profile →Gave contrary evidence about his son the same dayRetired captain, South African Police Service; firearms expert
Retired SAPS captain Ashley Houston described Bevan Loftus as a notorious gang associate, while also telling the commission the officers' account of the shooting was 'highly improbable' on the physical evidence.
View profile →IPID's evidence covers the same killingDeputy director for investigations, Independent Police Investigative Directorate (IPID), KwaZulu-Natal
On Day 157 IPID's Len John alleged Govender received more than R2.7 million connected to the killing of Bevan Loftus. Untested.
View profile →“A day after the application was issued, Captain Deena Govender and a group of SAPS officers under his command murdered my son anyway.”Gregory Loftus to the Madlanga Commission (Day 158, 13 August 2026), on the urgent interdict application he deposed to on 31 March 2023 seeking to stop the police killing his son. Untested; the officers named have not given evidence in answer and are presumed innocent.
Sources