KZN provincial police commissioner Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi. Photo: Delwyn Verasamy
KwaZulu-Natal head of the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation (the Hawks) Lesetja Sesona has told the Madlanga Commission that he received what he perceived to be threatening text messages from provincial police commissioner Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi before his testimony.
Sesona read out portions of the text exchanges, saying the messages were sent shortly before he was due to testify at the commission, which is probing allegations of corruption and political interference in the criminal justice system.
“And when you get these types of messages, one gets an insinuating situation that says: ‘Don’t talk about this,’” Sesona said.
He told the commission that the message conveyed to him was that he should be careful and avoid discussing a meeting he organised between Mkhwanazi and businessman Vusimuzi “Cat” Matlala.
Questioned further by evidence leaders, Sesona conceded that Mkhwanazi did not explicitly instruct him not to speak about the meeting but maintained that he, nonetheless, felt intimidated by the tone and content of the messages.
Matlala has told parliament’s ad hoc committee, which is also investigating police corruption, that Sesona facilitated a meeting with Mkhwanazi related to a contract. Sesona said he did not arrange the meeting but only accompanied Mkhwanazi to meet Matlala.
In the texts, Mkhwanazi seemed concerned that Matlala had lied during testimony before the ad hoc committee.
During the meeting, Matlala informed Mkhwanazi about alleged interactions with police officials and claims that money was being collected using state vehicles. Sesona’s legal representative advised him not to disclose the identities of the individuals mentioned in the messages, warning that doing so could place him in danger.
However, the texts include references to allegations that a house was being used by the currently suspended deputy national commissioner for crime, Shadrack Sibiya, to collect money with state vehicles and that R2 million was paid towards the purchase of Sibiya’s farm.
“I’m still going to that committee and hope [Matlala] doesn’t mind me exposing him to both Sibiya and Mr Y. I hope you won’t blame me for risking his life because I have to tell the truth about our meeting,” Mkhwanazi wrote to Sesona.
In another message, Mkhwanazi warned Sesona that he planned to rely on extensive evidence to corroborate his account.
“Besides voice recording, cellular phone and triangulation and my vehicle tracker including access footage will confirm the day and time of our meeting … For his own sake I hope those timelines are in line with what he said before the committee in relation to his arrest,” wrote Mkhwanazi.
“These messages, commissioners, they came as some sort of intimidation to me. What I did was I just screenshot them and sent them to my attorneys,” said Sesona.
He added that it was unbecoming for a provincial police commissioner to send such messages to him and confirmed that his attorneys had written to Mkhwanazi, requesting access to the alleged recordings referred to in the texts. Sesona said those recordings have not yet been provided.
Sesona said he was “rattled” by the messages. He also said he was subsequently redeployed within his office and suspects that was linked to Mkhwanazi.
Earlier on Tuesday Sesona denied allegations that he leaked confidential police information to Matlala or improperly used his position as provincial head of the Hawks.
Crime intelligence boss Dumisani Khumalo, along with Witness X and Witness C, have previously implicated Sesona in allegedly sharing sensitive information and aiding Matlala, who has been linked to claims about a so-called “Big 5 cartel” operating in Gauteng.
On Tuesday Sesona rejected the allegations as “malicious, void of truth and amounting to conjecture” and dismissed the existence of the Big 5 cartel. He has also testified that his interactions with Matlala were social and based on information in the public domain.