Katiso Molefe was arrested on 6 December 2024 — a month before the task team was disbanded by suspended police minister Senzo Mchunu. (Screenshot)
The forensic evidence team leader of the political killings task team told the Mandlanga commission that the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation (the Hawks) interfered in the arrests of murder co-accused Katiso Molefe and Vusimuzi “Cat” Matlala.
Maxwell Wanda said that, during a takedown operation at Molefe’s Sandhurst residence in Gauteng, a group of Hawks police officers arrived at the scene.
Molefe was arrested on 6 December 2024 — a month before the task team was disbanded by suspended police minister Senzo Mchunu.
“We were addressed by our project coordinator to withdraw from the team, to go back to our offices because there was some letter of disbandment of the team,” he said.
Wanda told the commission that a “large number” of Hawks officers arrived at the Molefe takedown operation with “hostile attitudes”. He described the scene as “concerning” and said exchanges between the two units “were not friendly”.
“They came in numbers and I didn’t expect them to be that big. And when I interacted with them, they were a bit aggressive, demanding answers, posing questions to me,” he said.
Police links to cartels unravelled when 10 members of the KwaZulu-Natal-based task team assisted the Gauteng organised crime unit in the 2024 murder of Armand Swart — a Vereeniging engineer believed to be a whistleblower in a R1.2 million Transnet corruption scandal.
Anonymous police witnesses have previously told the commission that a Hawks helicopter appeared at the scene. When the interference failed, they subsequently received pressure from senior officers to doctor the case docket.
Witness A — a member of the Gauteng organised crime unit — previously told the commission the case’s ballistic report linking gun cartridges found at the Swart murder scene to other murders in Gauteng was redone. He implicated the head of the Gauteng organised crime unit, Richard Shibiri.
On Monday, Wanda told the commission the Hawks stood down at the Molefe arrest when Witness A showed them the J50 arrest warrant.
He said the operation was “official and legitimate”, backed by a warrant signed by the magistrate.
“Everything was official, so I wouldn’t expect it to be disturbed or to be interfered with until the execution is completed,” he said.
It appeared to be “interference” by the Hawks during a high-level arrest. He said operations are “highly sensitive and dangerous” and teams should be briefed on other units’ involvement.
A helicopter made a few circles around the house and flew away while he was speaking with the Hawks captain.
The Hawks said they were responding to a complaint that some individuals were impersonating police officers and were there to verify whether the operation was legitimate.
“After the explanation from myself and Witness A, they believed it was legitimate,” he said.
Wanga admitted that the political killing task team had arrived in unmarked vehicles, although they were wearing police bulletproof vests with the South African Police Service (SAPS) emblem on them.
He said a member of the Hawks handed him a phone with a call from Brigadier Lesiba Mokoena, who apologised for the Hawks’s intrusion and said they had been given wrong information.
“In my view, the conduct of the Hawks constitutes interference or disturbance with the legitimate takedown operation in circumstances where there was no basis for presence at the scene,” Wanga told the commission.
“It was also very concerning to me their actions and attitude towards us seemed to be consistent with that of a team looking to interfere in our operations as opposed to verifying if we were SAPS members,” he said.
Wanga said Witness A showed the forensic evidence team a fleet of cars at Molefe’s residence. They found four rifles with ammunition on the back seat of one of the cars. Lehasa Moloi, believed to be Molefe’s bodyguard, told officers the car and guns belonged to him.
After the Hawks withdrew from the scene, and Molefe was arrested, Wanda said Moloi asked him: “What is going to happen now because the person is a friend of the minister?”
He said the takedown operation subsequently moved to Matlala’s residence, but they found he had fled.