KwaZulu-Natal police commissioner Lieutenant-General Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi. (@SAPoliceService/X)
KwaZulu-Natal police commissioner Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi testified on the third day of the Madlanga commission of inquiry about persistent leaks in crime intelligence, saying the same networks implicated in corruption more than a decade ago still operated and held senior positions.
The commission, chaired by retired judge Mbuyiseli Madlanga, was set up by President Cyril Ramaphosa after Mkhwanazi in July made allegations of criminality, political interference and corruption in the justice system and implicated Police Minister Senzo Mchunu. Ramaphosa has placed Mchunu — who denied the claims — on special leave.
Mkhwanazi has detailed how Mchunu disbanded the task team investigating political killings in KwaZulu-Natal team nine months into his tenure without being briefed on its work. Mkhwanazi called the directive “irrational and irregular”. He also alleged the task team was targeted when it closed in on syndicates in Gauteng.
On Friday he said he would not allow the kind of crime intelligence corruption that occurred in 2011 under then president Jacob Zuma to take root again.
This was a day after he alleged political interference in criminal cases by MPs Fadiel Adams of the National Coloured Congress and the Democratic Alliance’s Dianne Kohler Barnard, accusing them of accessing crime intelligence and weaponising it for politicians.
“What I see happening right now takes me back to 2011 and that makes me realise that I cannot just sit back and allow the irregularities when I was acting police commissioner; it is going to be a culture, it is going to be embed itself in the criminal justice system and therefore the citizens are not going to be safe,” Mkhwanazi said on Friday.
He was referring to his appointment by Zuma in late 2011 after the suspension of Bheki Cele.
This week, a bid by Zuma’s uMkhonto weSizwe (MK) party to halt the Madlanga commission was struck off the roll by the Pretoria high court, which ruled the matter t was not urgent. The MK party argued that the commission is unconstitutional and that Mkhwanazi’s allegations should be tested in court.
On Friday, Mkhwanazi recalled joining police top management in 2011, when the South African Police Service was mired in scandal over the Richard Mdluli murder case and an intelligence slush fund. He said that was “the worst case of political interference” he had seen.
“Crime intelligence, modus operandi back then and players that were still involved back then with the looting of the money and irregularities are still involved in crime intelligence today, and some of them are occupying high positions. So there are no reforms implemented in crime intelligence,” he said.
Mkhwanazi said a recent case involving Brian Mokgotsi, an associate of Mchunu, raised red flags for him, alleging that a media attack was orchestrated against him while presiding over the disciplinary hearing of deputy head of crime intelligence Feroz Khan, who was accused of covering up a drug bust.
He said Mokgotsi pushed a narrative that crime intelligence head Dumisani Khumalo had criticised him about cash-in-transit crimes in KwaZulu-Natal. Mkhwanazi also received a leaked photograph of a crime intelligence presentation, which he said showed how sensitive material was being shared.
He said he later discovered Mokgotsi’s underworld links. In September 2024, Mokgotsi sent him a WhatsApp message alleging he was under investigation for “defeating the ends of justice” in relation to a drug possessing case.
Attached were internal police documents — a letter and an occurrence book — which Mkhwanazi said were used to discredit him. Although Mokgotsi is from the North West province, the documents originated from KwaZulu-Natal structures.
He told the commission that Mchunu’s chief of staff confirmed the minister’s association with Mokgotsi. But Mchunu denied any connection, saying Mokgotsi was “a comrade”.
Mokgotsi allegedly told him that national police commissioner Fanie Masemola agreed with Khumalo’s view. “This is a person who knows everything about the police, even knowledge of crime intelligence,” Mkhwanazi said.
Mkhwanazi said he was falsely accused of interfering in a case in favour of Nelly Ndlovu, the former head of a prison facility who was accused of possessing drugs and ammunition. He said after arguing that contraband discovered in a dustbin accessible to many people could not reliably implicate her, his remarks were seen as interference.
In March, the Independent Police Investigative Directorate (Ipid) received a complaint from Mchunu accusing Mkhwanazi of meddling in the case. According to Mkhwanazi, Mokgotsi told him that Feroz Khan would brief him about developments.
“I’m not saying that Khan is involved in these leakages of information to members of parliament and these other people, but almost everything we see in the media comes from that component of crime intelligence, and that’s where the real fight comes from,” Mkhwanazi said on Friday.
He added that the media played a role in shaping narratives about police corruption: “Part of the system of protecting the drug squad, the media plays a part. Let me rephrase: journalists within media houses play a part in pushing certain narratives.”
He recalled being contacted by a journalist who later said colleagues were pressuring him to publish a negative story.
Mkhwanazi also alleged that Cele, then the police minister, phoned him to reassign a district commissioner to halt an investigation into Khan. He described being upset by Cele’s interference. Negative articles portraying him as obstructing investigations spread online, which he interpreted as pressure to drop the case.
“I took it as pressure for me to back off on the case I was presiding over about General Khan,” he said, adding that despite his suspicions, Khan was treated fairly in disciplinary hearings.
In his testimony on Thursday Mkhanazi accused Adams, of National Coloured Congress, of “unauthorised access to intelligence information and his reckless use” of classified material.
Adams claimed a secret fund was abused to buy vehicles for the political killings task team and lodged complaints against Khumalo, the crime intelligence boss, who now faces fraud and corruption charges linked to the appointment of Brigadier Dineo Mokwele in the technical support unit.
Mkhwanazi said Adams’ cases lacked legitimacy. Reports and investigations by Masemola found no basis. Still, in November 2024, Mchunu directed the Independent Directorate Against Corruption (IDAC) to investigate, even as he prepared to disband the political killings task team a month later.
Mkhwanazi described Adams’ conduct as “strange” and part of “a bigger plan of things”. He suggested the claims were used to derail investigations into Gauteng drug cartels.
The commission also heard that the DA’s Kohler-Barnard acted as a false whistleblower by calling for an investigation into the alleged purchase of a multimillion-rand Durban property by crime intelligence.
Mkhwanazi accused her of fuelling malicious attacks within crime intelligence, arguing that she should have raised concerns with parliament’s joint standing committee on intelligence instead of going public, which forced crime intelligence to disclose classified information.
He further alleged that the inspector general of intelligence was being used by politicians to undermine investigations. According to him, Adams, Kohler-Barnard and the inspector general had all been mobilised to interfere in Khumalo’s work against a Gauteng drug cartel.