As the Madlanga commission of inquiry continues its proceedings with police commissioner Gen Fannie Masemola now in the hot seat, Sowetan looks at some of the names that KwaZulu-Natal's top cop, Lt-Gen Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi, dropped in his three-day testimony.
Mkhwanazi concluded his testimony on Friday, which was detailed in a 99-page document implicating three former police ministers, underground business figures and MPs, among other people.
The commission was established to look into allegations of criminality, political interference and corruption within the justice system.
Here are some names Mkhwanazi dropped and what he said about them:
Gen Fannie Masemola
Masemola on Monday told the commission about the letter he received from police minister Senzo Mchunu's office informing him of the decision to disband the political task team. The letter stated that the services of the team were no longer required and that it was not adding any value to the fight against crime, despite Mkhwanazi being adamant that the team was doing a sterling job.
Lt-Gen Dumisani Khumalo
According to Mkhwanazi, the arrest of Khumalo was a deliberate attempt to derail a crime intelligence investigation into a drug syndicate operating in Gauteng, allegedly with the support of senior police officers and MPs.
Mkhwanazi said Khumalo would speak about the intelligence operation he leads. This operation has reportedly uncovered links between drug cartels and high-ranking political figures, including former police minister Bheki Cele and Mchunu, who has since been placed on special leave after allegations made against him by Mkhwanazi.
Cedrick Nkabinde
Nkabinde is the chief of staff at Mchunu's office and, according to Mkhwanazi, will confirm that Brown Mogotsi is an associate of Mchunu and also has connections with underworld businesspeople.
Mkhwanazi said Nkabinde will support the claims that the letter to disband the political task team was influenced by outsiders.
Sgt Mbele and Sgt Sithole
The two investigating officers allegedly received threats after they cracked the Armand Swart and DJ Sumbody murder cases. With assistance from the political task team, they later linked the firearms used at both crime scenes to several other cases across Gauteng.
Sowetan previously reported that when the investigators cracked the first case of Swart, who was assassinated in April 2024 after his company reported an irregular Transnet tender involving millions of rand, they were followed and threatened with some of the threats coming from a senior cop in the Vaal district.
Reports suggest he was shot 23 times.
Prosecutor Coetzee
In August 2024, Coetzee, from the NPA office in the Vaal, addressed a letter to Masemola and other senior officials, requesting protective measures for two investigators who had received threats.
Mesuli Mlandu
Mlandu, former executive director in the city manager’s office in Johannesburg, wrote a letter to the minister of police at the time, Bheki Cele, raising concerns about the potential risk posed by Lt-Gen Shadrack Sibiya ahead of his appointment as deputy national police commissioner.
The letter revealed that Sibiya was under investigation for corruption and fraud involving R3.5m in unlawful gratification and R580,000 in irregular expenditure by the City of Johannesburg.
According to Mkhwanazi, Sibiya collaborated with Mchunu and criminal cartels to disband the political task team. He allegedly ordered that the 121 dockets the team was working on be transferred to his office and failed to execute arrests in five of those cases, despite the prosecutor having issued instructions to do so.
Mkhwanazi said if he had not spoken about the allegations, the criminal justice system would have collapsed, while chairperson of the commission Madlanga said in his opening remarks that if allegations of corruption in the justice system are were proved to be true, it spelt “doom for the rule of law”.
“If the allegations are proved to be true, that spells doom for South Africa's criminal justice system. A healthy justice system is key to the rule of law and, in turn, to a functioning constitutional democracy. A criminal justice system that is populated by corrupt functionaries, many criminals, especially those holding positions of influence, will rarely, if ever, answer,” he said last week.
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[SRC] https://www.timeslive.co.za/amp/news/south-africa/2025-09-22-drug-syndicate-probe-implicates-high-ranking-officials-says-mkhwanazi2/
