By Johnathan Paoli
Two Directorate of Priority Crime Investigations (Hawks) officers have accused Investigating Directorate Against Corruption (IDAC) head Andrea Johnson of interfering in a criminal investigation by allegedly providing a suspect with confidential docket information and later contacting witnesses linked to the case.
Testifying at the Madlanga Commission of Inquiry on Friday, retired Hawks Colonel Kobus Roelofse and Captain Mark McLean both testified that Johnson’s actions in relation to a 2018 criminal complaint by Brigadier Leonara Phetle against suspended Gauteng Crime Intelligence deputy head Major-General Feroz Khan amounted to interference in an investigation and defeating the ends of justice.
Roelofse’s evidence centred on a protected disclosure made in 2022 by a Crime Intelligence colonel who said she had shared an office with Khan in 2018.
“The Colonel had essentially disclosed to us that General Khan was given the contents of the criminal complaint against him when he was not entitled to the contents of the docket as the suspect. At this stage General Khan had not been charged and no decision had been made on whether or not to prosecute,” Roelofse testified.
According to Roelofse, Khan handed the officer his cellphone during a meeting and instructed her to provide her private email address to a woman identified as “Andrea”.
Shortly afterwards, she allegedly received an email from a Gmail account bearing Johnson’s name containing the complaint docket against Khan.
Roelofse said the officer told investigators that she was instructed to pass the information to Khan and then erase the email.
Instead of deleting it, the colonel printed the email and its attachments, handed them to Khan and retained the electronic copy.
Roelofse said the forwarded email had originated from former journalist Barry Bateman and included Phetle’s sworn statement, a J88 medical report and an audio recording relating to allegations of assault and intimidation against Khan.
He said the disclosure was particularly troubling because Khan was the complainant’s direct superior and could therefore tailor his version of events or influence other witnesses before statements were obtained.
Roelofse told commissioners that investigators later interviewed Bateman, who allegedly confirmed Johnson had requested the information from him.
According to Roelofse, Bateman said he had “a very good relationship” with Johnson dating back to 2011 and could not remember why she wanted the material.
Roelofse also testified that Bateman only eventually provided a formal statement in June 2026, four years after investigators first requested one.
He further alleged that after he reported his concerns to former Hawks head Lieutenant-General Godfrey Lebeya in 2022, Johnson later approached him and disclosed that then National Director of Public Prosecutions (NDPP) Shamila Batohi had informed her about the complaint and the colonel’s statement.
“I believe Andrea Johnson’s conduct in relation to the complaint against Feroz Khan amounted to interference in an investigation and defeating the ends of justice,” Roelofse said.
He added that Johnson had effectively “forewarned” a suspect before a warning statement was submitted and described her alleged use of private email accounts for official business as “troubling”.
After the tea adjournment, DCPI Captain McLean largely corroborated Roelofse’s evidence and expanded on the alleged consequences for witnesses.
He told commissioners he believed a telephone call from Johnson to Bateman contributed to the journalist delaying his formal statement for several years.
“Both Advocate Batohi and Advocate Johnson are well aware of the potential serious consequences of their conduct, which has the potential to compromise the investigation and place the safety of whistleblowers like the Colonel at risk,” McLean said.
“Had it not been for the Colonel’s decision not to delete the email from Advocate Johnson to her, and then to come forward with the information, we never would have known a senior prosecutor, and now the head of IDAC, had furnished a suspect with the contents of a docket when he was not entitled to this information,” he added.
McLean alleged that Batohi’s handling of the matter mirrored the very conduct investigators were examining.
“The very same thing that we are accusing or saying Advocate Johnson did by supplying a person of interest with a copy of a docket… is exactly the same what Advocate Batohi did to Advocate Johnson at that time,” he said.
The commission was also played audio allegedly capturing the 2018 confrontation between Khan and Phetle, while McLean testified that Phetle’s J88 medical report recorded injuries to her chest.
Commission chair Mbuyiseli Madlanga repeatedly questioned McLean about why investigators had waited until a new NDPP was appointed before again seeking a prosecutor for the case.
McLean replied that investigators feared prosecutors who had worked with Johnson could be subject to the same influence they alleged had affected witnesses.
Evidence leader Lee Seegels-Ncube, however, cautioned against suggesting Batohi had refused to appoint a prosecutor, noting that investigators had never received a formal response to their request.
Proceedings adjourned for lunch, with Witness O, the unnamed Colonel, to testify partially in camera after the break.
