Witness
Senior officer, Johannesburg Metropolitan Police Department · Johannesburg
Named in testimony
A senior JMPD officer named in two separate strands of evidence about the same case, who on the commission's record remains in her post. Superintendent Elmarie de Beer, head of JMPD internal affairs, told the commission on Day 173, 15 September 2026, that Chief Superintendent Tintswalo Rikhotso took part in an alleged approach to a Hawks officer to secure the release of a convicted colleague. On Day 194, 13 November 2026, Warrant Officer Phuti Mashala of the Hawks gave the investigators' account of it: that a R250 000 offer was made to make the docket on JMPD officer Eric Mphahlele disappear, and per Inside Politics that Rikhotso arranged the bribe because she did not trust the Hawks officers handling the case. Per SABC News she and a Hawks captain offered to arrange the payment. Per Inside Politics, Rikhotso remains in her post. NOTHING HERE IS A FINDING. She has given no evidence to this commission, has answered none of these allegations publicly, has been convicted of nothing, and 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 the Day 194 evidence of Warrant Officer Phuti Mashala, a R250 000 offer was made to make the docket on Eric Mphahlele disappear. Per Inside Politics, Rikhotso arranged the bribe because she did not trust the Hawks officers, and a Hawks captain was to facilitate the payment. Per SABC News, Rikhotso and the Hawks captain offered to arrange the bribe. Untested.
Superintendent Elmarie de Beer told the commission on Day 173 that an inspector still employed by the department offered a Hawks officer R550 000 to secure Mphahlele's release, with Rikhotso said to have taken part. The figures given on the two days are not the same, and this archive does not reconcile them.
Per Inside Politics, Rikhotso, the Hawks captain and Inspector Emma Phakoane all remain in their positions. That is reported as a fact about employment, not as a finding about conduct, and no disciplinary or criminal outcome has been reported against any of them.
Connections
Investigator, Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation (Hawks)
Mashala told the commission on Day 194 that the R250 000 offer to drop the Mphahlele docket was arranged through Rikhotso, and that the resulting entrapment operation collapsed when the investigators told the intended intermediary about it. Untested; Rikhotso is presumed innocent.
View profile →The convicted officer the offer concernedFormer officer, Johannesburg Metropolitan Police Department
On the evidence the alleged bribe was intended to make the docket against Mphahlele disappear. His conviction is a matter of the criminal courts; the allegation about the attempt to protect him has not been tested anywhere.
View profile →Named alongside her in the same evidenceInspector, Johannesburg Metropolitan Police Department
Per Inside Politics both Phakoane and Rikhotso are named in the Day 194 evidence about the attempt to make the Mphahlele case disappear, and both remain in their posts. Neither has answered any of it and both are presumed innocent.
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