Inspector-General of Intelligence (suspended) · Pretoria
Named in evidence · suspended · has not testified
South Africa's Inspector-General of Intelligence, the statutory watchdog over the country's intelligence services, and one of the few central figures in this record who has not been able to speak to it. Fazel was drawn into the Crime Intelligence fight in early January 2025, when then police minister Senzo Mchunu instructed his office to investigate in parallel the same issues Mchunu had referred to the Investigating Directorate Against Corruption. Before he was suspended he recommended disciplinary and criminal charges against national commissioner Lieutenant-General Fannie Masemola and Crime Intelligence head Lieutenant-General Dumisani Khumalo over five properties bought by Crime Intelligence for more than R120 million in 2023 and 2024. The State Security Agency revoked his security clearance, and three weeks later, in October 2025, President Cyril Ramaphosa suspended him. In March 2026 the Daily Maverick reported that the President had effectively blocked him from testifying to this commission about those criminal claims. He is challenging both the clearance withdrawal and the suspension in the high court, in an application amaBhungane and News24 reported in July 2026 as showing how central the police minister's office was to the investigations and leaks that led both to this commission and to his own removal. His office's still-classified report has surfaced twice at the commission: IDAC state advocate Drushantha Ramsamy testified on Day 156 that Mchunu arranged for it to be carried to IDAC's chief investigator in the Eastern Cape after the watchdog had refused to release it, and on Day 164 Commissioner Sesi Baloyi confronted MP Fadiel Adams with two contradictory sworn accounts of who had telephoned him from Fazel's office. Fazel has given no evidence to the commission, has answered nothing before it, and is presumed innocent. Nothing here is a finding of any kind against him.
Imtiaz FazelInspector-General of IntelligenceIGICrime IntelligenceSenzo MchunuMadlanga 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
Instructed by the police minister to run a parallel investigation
In early January 2025 then police minister Senzo Mchunu instructed the Inspector-General's office to investigate, in parallel, the same Crime Intelligence issues Mchunu had referred to IDAC. Reporting by amaBhungane, News24 and the Daily Maverick, drawn from Fazel's own high court affidavit, describes the minister's office as central to the sequence of investigations and leaks that produced both this commission and Fazel's suspension. The affidavit is Fazel's untested account; Mchunu has answered none of it before this commission and is presumed innocent.
He recommended charges against Masemola and Khumalo over R120 million in property
Before his suspension, Fazel recommended disciplinary and criminal charges against national commissioner Lieutenant-General Fannie Masemola and Crime Intelligence head Lieutenant-General Dumisani Khumalo over five properties bought by Crime Intelligence for more than R120 million in 2023 and 2024. That recommendation is a watchdog's opinion, not a charge and not a finding. Neither officer has been convicted of anything arising from it and both are presumed innocent.
Security clearance revoked, then suspended by the President
The State Security Agency withdrew Fazel's security clearance, and three weeks later, in October 2025, President Cyril Ramaphosa suspended him following a complaint. He is challenging both decisions in the high court, arguing the suspension was unprocedural and likely unconstitutional. The President and the other respondents had yet to file their answer when the application was reported in July 2026. These are contested legal proceedings and no court has ruled on them.
Effectively blocked from testifying to this commission
In March 2026 the Daily Maverick reported that the President had effectively blocked the Inspector-General from giving evidence to the Madlanga Commission about the criminal claims he had made against Masemola and Khumalo. The commission has therefore had to deal with his office's work at second hand - through the report Mchunu is alleged to have routed to IDAC, and through witnesses describing contact with his office - rather than from the Inspector-General himself.
Day 164: two sworn accounts of a call from his office
On 21 August 2026 Commissioner Sesi Baloyi confronted MP Fadiel Adams with a contradiction between his evidence to Parliament's ad hoc committee, that Fazel had personally telephoned him about his Crime Intelligence complaint, and his evidence to this commission, that the call came from a member of Fazel's staff. 'How could you possibly mistake a call from such an important person?' she asked. Adams said the parliamentary version was the mistaken one. The dispute is about Adams's reliability, not about any conduct by Fazel, who has not been asked about it and is presumed innocent.