Day 33: the night of 15 April 2022
He testified that he was called to a joint operation in Brakpan, found a mix of EMPD officers, two SAPS members and a police informer, and watched the suspect die.
Per IOL, van der Merwe testified that on 15 April 2022 the security firm boss Kobus Janse van Rensburg called him repeatedly to join an operation at the home of a Brakpan robbery suspect, and that he agreed reluctantly while caring for a sick child. At the house he said he found EMPD officers he associated with Brigadier Julius Mkhwanazi, two SAPS members he described as suspicious, and a man he called 'a SAPS informer of ill repute', Jaco Hanekom. He said the suspect was 'tubed' and suffocated with a plastic bag, and that when he asked whether the man had said where the stolen goods were, an officer answered: 'He will never talk again.' He said officers then looked for a firearm to plant on the body, that one of them said he would call the SAPS Crime Intelligence head Feroz Khan 'to fix this', and that Hanekom said 'the chief' would handle the fallout. These are allegations given under oath and tested by no court. All named are presumed innocent.
The order he said he was given, and what he did
He testified that Mkhwanazi arrived, ordered the body dumped 'preferably in a mineshaft or a dam', and looked at him.
Per IOL, van der Merwe testified that Mkhwanazi arrived at the scene in a dark tracksuit, said the body had to be disposed of, 'preferably in a mineshaft or a dam', and then looked directly at him. He said he complied out of fear, loaded the body onto his bakkie and left it partially submerged at a dam at Nigel. He said he burned his clothes the following day, and that when he returned to the dam with Janse van Rensburg, unmarked police vehicles were already there. He reported the matter to the Hawks and to the Independent Police Investigative Directorate, and said investigators warned him the group was extremely dangerous. He also told the commission that he never learned who the dead man was: 'We still have no idea who the dead man was.' IOL has since named the man as Emmanuel Mbhense, spelled Mbense by The Citizen, reported as a Mozambican national found dead at a dam at Duduza, Nigel, in April 2022. Untested; all named are presumed innocent.
Mkhwanazi's answer
Mkhwanazi told the commission he went to the scene at about 3am after a call from Hanekom and denied any part in disposing of the body.
Per IOL, Mkhwanazi told the commission he attended the scene at around 3am after Hanekom called him about an operation that had gone wrong, and he denied involvement in the disposal of the body. His words, as IOL reported them, were: 'I suspected that they got the success and did something about it.' Per The Citizen he acknowledged being present at the Mbhense scene and said he was celebrating the recovery of stolen goods by EMPD officers. He is charged in a separate matter, the alleged 'blue lights' procurement scandal, and nothing in either matter has been determined against him. He is presumed innocent.
Of twelve persons of interest in the 2022 killing, four are dead
Per SAPS spokesperson Brigadier Athlenda Mathe, twelve people were persons of interest in the Mbhense murder, including van der Merwe himself, and eight are still alive.
Per The Citizen, police spokesperson Brigadier Athlenda Mathe said twelve people were persons of interest in the Mbhense murder, among them Wiandre Pretorius and van der Merwe himself, and that 'what is of concern and interest is that of those 12, eight are still alive'. Besides Pretorius, she identified three of the twelve as having been killed: the police informer Jaco Hanekom in March 2023, a further person in October 2025, and van der Merwe in December 2025. Per The Citizen the Independent Police Investigative Directorate has concluded its investigation into the Mbhense matter and the docket sits with the Gauteng Director of Public Prosecutions. No one has been convicted of any of these deaths, and everyone named as a person of interest is presumed innocent.
His killing, and the prosecution that followed
He was shot outside his Brakpan home on 5 December 2025. One man has been charged, refused bail, and is awaiting trial.
Per IOL, SNL24 and the Daily Maverick, van der Merwe was shot twice at close range as he arrived at his home in Brakpan on the evening of 5 December 2025, in front of his wife and two children, who survived. Nothing was taken, which police said pointed to a targeted killing. Per News24 and SAnews, Matipandile Sotheni was arrested on 15 March 2026 and first appeared in court the following day; per The Citizen and the Daily Maverick, Magistrate Tlakale Sathekge refused him bail on 1 June 2026, finding that witnesses could be at risk and that 'the state's case against the applicant is not weak'. He faces 16 charges, and the state alleges he conspired with Wiandre Pretorius, who was a primary person of interest in the murder and who died on 7 February 2026. The matter was back in the Brakpan Magistrate's Court on 2 November 2026 with the state's cellphone analysis still unfinished. Sotheni has not pleaded, has denied the allegations, no court has convicted him, and he is presumed innocent.