EMPD brigadier Julius Mkhwanazi. Photo: JMPD
The influence of murder accused and alleged leader of the Big Five cartel Vusimuzi “Cat” Matlala extended to the Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Police Department (EMPD), the Madlanga commission of inquiry into criminality in the justice system heard this week.
Officials were as a result afraid to suspend EMPD brigadier Julius Mkhwanazi for alleged misconduct due to his links to Matlala, the City of Ekurhuleni’s suspended director of employee relations Xolani Nciza testified at the commission chaired by retired judge Mbuyiseli Madlanga.
Nciza also implicated Ekurhuleni city manager Imogen Mashazi in hampering disciplinary processes in the metro, telling the inquiry: “I believe the drive to protect Mkhwanazi was a Mashazi driven effort – that was a Mashazi project. It was Mashazi who had these close links to Mkhwanazi.”
On the second day of his testimony on Thursday, Nciza further outlined the scope of Matlala’s influence in Gauteng’s police force, where HR officials were hesitant to discipline an EMPD officer linked to “characters who are involved in the news for the wrong reasons”.
He further implicated Kemi Behari — Ekurhuleni’s head of legal services — and HR boss Linda Gxasheka in interference with disciplinary processes to protect brigadier Mkhwanazi. “I was shaken by the emerging pattern of interference that emerged with specific regard to this matter,” Nciza said.
“For the first time I experienced a situation where senior management was hellbent in protecting an employee regardless of procedures and processes of the municipality.”
He said he had served under five Ekurhuleni city managers who had never interfered in a labour relations dispute.
Ekurhuleni senior officials “acted as though they were shop stewards” of brigadier Mkhwanazi and did his bidding, Nciza added.
Earlier in the week, EMPD deputy police chief Revo Spies told the commission about an “unlawful” memorandum of understanding signed with Matlala’s security company Cat VIP Protection, which donated police vehicles and a hired helicopter which the municipality could only use for two hours a month.
Brigadier Mkhwanazi was also accused of running a corrupt unit which undertook operations outside its jurisdiction and conducted a search and seizure where R45 million and copper cables went missing.
Matlala’s company effectively “outsourced law enforcement” from the municipality and was seen investigating crime scenes and assisting with arrests, Spies said.
The memorandum, signed in June and October 2021, gave Cat VIP Protection’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.
Mkhwanazi authorised the agreement which began during Covid-19 and included Matlala’s company providing security for Ekurhuleni’s 2022 state of the city address, Spies said, adding that there were plans for Cat VIP Protection to provide security to the mayor.
Brigadier Mkhwanazi allegedly defended the city’s working relationship with Cat VIP Protection as “longstanding” and “endless” — insisting that the security company had been helpful to the EMPD in fighting crime.
In his testimony, Nciza critiqued brigadier Mkhwanazi’s description of the city’s relationship with Matlala’s security company and said: “there is no working relationship let alone an endless one. He had a working relationship, not the municipality.”
The commission heard that Matlala’s influence went as far as the Johannesburg central police station and the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation (the Hawks).
Police links to cartels unravelled when a murder investigation led to the arrest of Pule Tau — a Johannesburg police detective hired as a hitman by Matlala, Witnesses A, B and C testified. They said the Hawks interfered during the arrest of Matlala’s co-accused Katiso Molefe whom they had to detain at Pretoria Central police station as a “high-risk” individual.
Hawks officials defended the intrusion before the Madlanga commission, describing it as miscommunication. Hawks brigadier Lesiba Mokoena said the elite police unit was responding to a report of police impersonation and its officers left the scene after they confirmed the arrest was legitimate.
The Hawks had a double agent named “Zungu” whose contacts were found in Matlala’s phone. Nciza’s testimony showed how Matlala even had EMPD officers at his beck and call. Nciza said he was suspended in March after he sent a letter “raising critical issues” and “exposing the malice” in attempts to protect anyone linked to Cat VIP Protection.