EMPD Brigadier Julius Mkhwanazi. (Facebook)
Metro police officials were afraid to suspend a senior brigadier who authorised the fitment of blue lights on vehicles belonging to businessman and murder-accused Vusimuzi “Cat” Matlala’s private security company, the Madlanga Commission heard.
The commission, chaired by retired judge Mbuyiseli Madlanga, has heard extensive testimony on the Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Police Department (EMPD)’s unlawful collaboration with Matlala’s Cat VIP Security Services, which was granted sweeping law enforcement powers under an irregular memorandum of understanding.
Former head of employee relations at the City of Ekurhuleni, Xolani Nciza, confirmed that EMPD’s director of specialised services, Brigadier Julius Mkhwanazi, authorised the memorandum and defended it in official reports, claiming the metro had a “long-standing and endless working relationship” with Cat VIP Security Services.
“Firstly, there is no working relationship, let alone an endless one. He had a working relationship, not the municipality,” said Nciza, who oversaw the internal disciplinary process against Mkhwanazi.
He told the commission that the brigadier had no authority to sign the agreement and had “misrepresented” the nature of the city’s relationship with Matlala’s company.
“I had expressed a view that this matter is not gonna be a simple disciplinary matter because it involves a character who is outside of the institution, who is in the news and is in the news for wrong reasons,” said Nciza.
The deal, signed in June and October 2021, gave Matlala’s company’s vehicles — including two BMWs, a Mercedes-Benz and a Volkswagen — permission to use blue lights reserved for law enforcement and to respond to crime scenes as if they were official police units.
The Madlanga commission previously heard from former EMPD deputy police chief Revo Spies that Matlala’s company had effectively “outsourced law enforcement” from the municipality.
Spies said EMPD reported crimes to Cat VIP Security rather than the South African Police Service (SAPS), and that the company’s vehicles were seen assisting in crime scene investigations and arrests.
Spies also told the commission that Ekurhuleni city manager Imogen Mashazi protected Mkhwanazi from facing disciplinary action despite multiple recommendations from the human resources (HR) department.
On Wednesday, Nciza said the disciplinary inquiry had stalled because EMPD staff were reluctant to pursue the suspension of a senior officer linked to Matlala, who has been implicated in bribery and police corruption at both the Madlanga Commission and Parliament’s parallel ad hoc committee on police corruption.
He said an HR colleague had refused to enter witness protection, fearing intrusion into their private life, and declined to file disciplinary charges personally.
The precautionary suspension letter drafted for Mkhwanazi was meant to prevent him from jeopardising investigations, interfering with witnesses and committing further misconduct, Nciza explained.
Nciza said EMPD had one of the highest rates of disciplinary cases among local police agencies, many of which were linked to public disputes, police bribery, and misuse of state resources.
“We had a number of briefings that ensued, especially the investigation in Brigadier Mkhwanazi’s unit, the investigation into the ‘blue lights’ scandal,” he said.
EMPD police chief Jabulani Mapiyeye had initiated the disciplinary process, while Lieutenant Colonel Hennie Erasmus led the investigation into the alleged unlawful use of blue lights, Nciza testified.
He added that Spies informed him that the Independent Police Investigative Directorate would soon institute charges against Mkhwanazi and advised him to pause the disciplinary inquiry three months into the process.
In his own testimony, Spies said Matlala’s private company — which also traded as Medicare 24 Emergency Medical Services — was contracted during the Covid-19 period to assist with metro operations and later provided security for a state of the city address.
He said EMPD officials had become hesitant to enforce accountability officers linked to “characters in the news for wrong reasons” and that the Matlala case created an atmosphere of intimidation within EMPD and the city’s law enforcement structures.