Officer, Tactical Response Unit, Johannesburg Metropolitan Police Department · Johannesburg
Testified
The JMPD constable who testified remotely that a superintendent told officers not to run drug busts without him, and ordered them to release suspects and take whatever bribes were offered. Constable Michael Potsane of the Tactical Response Unit gave evidence on Day 194, 13 November 2026. Per YFM his allegation is that Superintendent Phineas Manyama instructed officers not to handle drug operations without his involvement, and that on one occasion he ordered them to release suspects and accept any bribes offered, warning that their lives could be in danger if they refused. The case he used to illustrate it is a July 2025 operation. Per SABC News, under the byline of Sibahle Motha, his team arrested a man named Abdul Hussein near the Palm Continental Hotel in Mayfair, with five bricks of suspected cocaine and a pistol allegedly found in his car. Hussein cooperated and led officers to an unfinished mansion in Lakewood Estate, where he said he had collected the drugs and where officers found seventeen more bricks in a storage room, 'packed in medium-sized boxes lined with white foam'. A second suspect was found inside the house. Evidence leader Advocate Lee Segeels-Ncube told the panel the mansion's registered owner carries the surname Matlala, that the commission has NOT established whether that person is related to Vusimuzi 'Cat' Matlala, and that the name is withheld because it is unclear whether the owner knew what the property was used for. This archive names nobody on that basis. Everything here is untested. Mr Manyama retired in April 2026, has given no evidence to this commission, has answered none of this and is presumed innocent.
Michael PotsanePotsaneJMPDTactical Response UnitPhineas ManyamacocaineLakewood EstateMadlanga 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 instruction he says came from above
No drug busts without the superintendent, and release the suspects if told to.
Per YFM, Potsane told the commission that Superintendent Phineas Manyama had instructed officers not to handle drug busts without him, and that he ordered officers to release suspects and accept any bribes that were offered, warning that their lives could be at risk if they refused. This is the gravest allegation of the JMPD strand so far, because it describes a standing instruction rather than an isolated interference: on this account narcotics enforcement in the unit was conditional on the commander's participation. It is one officer's untested account of what he was told. Manyama has given no evidence to this commission, has answered nothing publicly, has been charged with no offence and is presumed innocent.
The July 2025 arrest in Mayfair
Five bricks of suspected cocaine and a pistol in a car near the Palm Continental Hotel.
Per SABC News, Potsane described an operation in July 2025 in which his team arrested a man named Abdul Hussein near the Palm Continental Hotel in Mayfair. Five bricks of suspected cocaine and a pistol were allegedly found in his vehicle. Hussein agreed to cooperate with the officers and led them to the place he said he had collected the drugs from. Nothing on this page is a finding against Hussein, who has not answered any of it here and is presumed innocent.
Seventeen more bricks at Lakewood Estate
An unfinished mansion, a storage room, and boxes lined with white foam.
Per SABC News, the cooperating suspect took officers to a large, unfinished house in Lakewood Estate in Johannesburg, where seventeen bricks of suspected cocaine were found in a storage room. Potsane's description of the find: 'The bricks were packed in medium-sized boxes lined with white foam', with two bricks to a box. A second man was found inside the house. Per SABC News the evidence leader also drew a similarity between the suspected cocaine in this bust and the 'Prestige' branded bricks shown in a video during Vusimuzi Matlala's own testimony to this commission.
A surname, and an open question the commission framed carefully
The registered owner of the mansion shares a surname with the commission's most covered witness. Nothing more has been established.
Per SABC News, evidence leader Advocate Lee Segeels-Ncube told the panel that the registered owner of the Lakewood Estate property carries the surname Matlala, that the commission has not established whether the owner is related to attempted murder accused Vusimuzi 'Cat' Matlala, and that the owner's name is being withheld because it is unclear whether they knew what the property was being used for. That is the whole of what is on the record. Matlala is a common South African surname, a shared surname is not a relationship, and a registered owner is not necessarily an occupier or a user. This archive names nobody, draws no line, and will record a connection only if the commission establishes one.
Timeline
How the account unfolded
Jul 2025
The Mayfair arrest and the Lakewood Estate find
On Potsane's evidence, a suspect is arrested near the Palm Continental Hotel with five bricks of suspected cocaine and a pistol, cooperates, and leads officers to an unfinished mansion where seventeen more bricks are found in a storage room.
13 Nov 2026
Testifies remotely on Day 194
Potsane gives evidence for the first time, alleging that officers were told not to run drug busts without the superintendent and were ordered to release suspects and accept bribes.
“The bricks were packed in medium-sized boxes lined with white foam.”
Constable Michael Potsane to the Madlanga Commission on Day 194, 13 November 2026, per SABC News, describing seventeen bricks of suspected cocaine found in a storage room at an unfinished mansion in Lakewood Estate.