Witness

Constable Malibongwe Michael Cutalele

Officer, Tactical Response Unit, Johannesburg Metropolitan Police Department · Johannesburg

Testified

The JMPD constable who told the commission he abandoned a high-speed pursuit because a superintendent telephoned and shouted at him, and who explained what it costs a junior officer to ask why. Constable Malibongwe Michael Cutalele of the Tactical Response Unit gave evidence on Day 194, 13 November 2026, led by Advocate Thabang Pooe. His account is of 3 July 2025: he and two colleagues were patrolling the M1 South towards Gold Reef City in an unmarked JMPD vehicle when they saw a black Ford Ranger with darkly tinted windows leave the highway without indicating. They followed it, activated blue lights and a siren, and the vehicle accelerated away, on his evidence driving recklessly and through a red light. A SAPS helicopter was dispatched. Superintendent Phineas Manyama then telephoned, shouted, asked what the officers wanted from the people in the vehicle, and ordered them to break off and meet him at a filling station on the R82 near the Lido Hotel. They complied. Per Inside Politics, Cutalele said 'I only thought of obeying the instructions from my superintendent', and that refusing 'would have been very difficult, Commissioner. Sometimes you can even be taken out of the unit.' The chairperson asked why nobody told the helicopter crew the chase was off and Cutalele conceded he had not thought of it. His evidence is an account of an instruction, untested. Mr Manyama retired in April 2026, has given no evidence to this commission, has answered none of this publicly, has been charged with nothing and is presumed innocent.

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Malibongwe CutaleleCutaleleJMPDTactical Response UnitPhineas ManyamaMadlanga 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

Key disclosures

Evidence and allegations

The Ford Ranger pursuit of 3 July 2025

A chase from the M1 South, a SAPS helicopter overhead, and a telephone call that ended it.

Per Inside Politics, Cutalele and two colleagues in an unmarked JMPD vehicle saw a black Ford Ranger with darkly tinted windows take an off-ramp from the M1 South without indicating and followed it on suspicion of criminal activity. The vehicle stopped at a McDonald's parking area, went on to a Toyota dealership, and was followed towards Southgate Mall. The officers activated blue lights and a siren; the Ranger slowed, then sped away, allegedly driving recklessly and going through a red light. They requested assistance on the SAPS reaction channel and a helicopter was dispatched. Superintendent Phineas Manyama called during the chase. Cutalele dropped the first call: 'I dropped his call because we were in the middle of a chase and I needed to make contact with SAPS.' Manyama called back, shouted, and asked what the officers wanted from the occupants. 'He instructed us to abandon the chase and meet him at Total Petrol Station on R82 near Lido Hotel.'

The meeting at the filling station

Manyama said he was unhappy and, on this evidence, did not explain why.

Per Inside Politics, the officers complied and met Manyama, who told them he was unhappy with their conduct but did not explain why the pursuit should not have continued. Cutalele said Manyama mentioned being concerned for the officers' safety without saying what he meant by it, and he specifically denied that Manyama suggested he knew who was in the Ranger. That denial matters: it is the difference between a commander protecting his officers and a commander protecting the occupants of a vehicle, and Cutalele did not give the commission the second reading. The allegation remains untested and Manyama has answered none of it.

What it costs to question an order

His answers on obedience are the mechanism Day 173 described from the outside.

The commission pressed him repeatedly on why he simply did as he was told. Per Inside Politics: 'I only thought of obeying the instructions from my superintendent.' On what would have happened had he refused: 'It would have been very difficult, Commissioner. Sometimes you can even be taken out of the unit.' On Manyama's manner: 'He's one of those people who are very, very loud, especially when he's addressing you', and per YFM, 'Superintendent Manyama is known by everyone at JMPD that he is always shouting.' And on the position generally: 'This industry is not an easy one, especially if the instruction comes from someone who's above.' Per the Bulletin he told the commission that disobeying senior officers could result in removal from a unit, and that officers are expected to follow instructions and raise questions afterwards.

The helicopter nobody told

The panel's own criticism of him, which he accepted.

The chairperson asked why Cutalele had not asked Manyama to explain the instruction, and why neither he nor his colleagues told the SAPS helicopter crew and the reaction channel that the pursuit had been called off. Per the Bulletin, Commissioner Advocate Sesi Baloyi SC put the same point: he admitted he had not notified the helicopter officers who were assisting. Cutalele conceded he had not thought of it. Per Inside Politics, two of the officers in the vehicle with him, Constables T.P. Mehala and T.T. Moloko, gave statements that largely supported his account and later lodged a grievance against Manyama; Cutalele was not part of that complaint and does not know its outcome. Superintendent Elmarie de Beer's earlier evidence was that complaints against Manyama were abandoned after he retired from the JMPD.

Timeline

How the account unfolded

3 Jul 2025

The pursuit

On Cutalele's evidence, a chase of a black Ford Ranger from the M1 South is abandoned on a telephoned instruction from Superintendent Phineas Manyama, with a SAPS helicopter overhead and nobody told that the pursuit was off.

Apr 2026

Manyama retires

On the evidence before the commission, Superintendent Phineas Manyama retires from the JMPD while disciplinary processes are pending, and the complaints against him are abandoned.

13 Nov 2026

Testifies on Day 194

Cutalele gives evidence for the first time, describes the abandoned pursuit, and tells the panel that questioning an instruction from above can get an officer removed from a unit.

On the stand

Appears on 1 hearing day

Day 19413 Nov 2026

Connections

How this witness links to the record

The superintendent who he says called off the chase

Superintendent Phineas Manyama

Retired superintendent, Tactical Response Unit, Johannesburg Metropolitan Police Department

Cutalele's Day 194 evidence is that Manyama telephoned during a pursuit on 3 July 2025, shouted, and ordered the officers to abandon it and meet him at a filling station, without explaining why. Untested; Manyama has given no evidence to this commission, has been charged with nothing and is presumed innocent.

View profile →The second Tactical Response Unit constable of the same day

Constable Michael Potsane

Officer, Tactical Response Unit, Johannesburg Metropolitan Police Department

Potsane testified remotely on Day 194 after Cutalele, on the same superintendent and the same unit, alleging instructions to release suspects and accept bribes on drug busts. Both accounts are untested.

View profile →The internal affairs head whose evidence his confirms from below

Superintendent Elmarie de Beer

Head of internal affairs, Johannesburg Metropolitan Police Department

De Beer told the commission on Day 173, 15 September 2026, that Manyama kept patrols out of particular areas and that officers who did not follow his instruction to stand down had a difficult time. Cutalele's Day 194 evidence describes the mechanism from inside a patrol vehicle.

View profile →

“It would have been very difficult, Commissioner. Sometimes you can even be taken out of the unit.”

Constable Malibongwe Cutalele to the Madlanga Commission on Day 194, 13 November 2026, per Inside Politics, asked what would have happened had he questioned the instruction to abandon the pursuit.

Sources