By Johnathan Paoli
Commissioners at the Madlanga Commission were this week again exposed first-hand to the crisis within South Africa’s law enforcement institutions, from bungled forensic reports and internal sabotage to the alleged collusion of senior police officials in crime and corruption.
Across four days of hearings, evidence leaders unpicked how administrative errors, delayed ballistics processing, and police infighting have compromised multiple murder investigations, including the 2024 assassination of Q Tech engineer Armand Swart.
The week opened with fiery exchanges between evidence leader and senior counsel Advocate Michael Chaskalson, and Brigadier Mishack Mkhabela, the head of SAPS’s ballistics section.
The session probed whether glaring omissions in an initial forensic report on the Swart case were simple mistakes, or deliberate acts of sabotage.
At issue was Captain Itumeleng Makgotloe’s original report, which failed to list 15 AK-47 cartridges recovered from the murder suspects and cited the wrong case number, potentially breaking the chain of custody.
Chaskalson warned this could have fatally compromised the prosecution’s case.
Mkhabela maintained the errors were administrative, not malicious.
“If Makgotloe was trying to sabotage the investigation, he would need his head read,” he said.
But Chaskalson revealed the report had been released despite a reviewer’s refusal to sign it off, and that Makgotloe’s subsequent corrections were irregularly handled, including the use of replacement pages and false dates.
Adding to the chaos, Mkhabela admitted that key evidence was uploaded to the national Integrated Ballistics Identification System (IBIS) five months late, citing a crippling backlog and staff shortages.
The firearms linked to the Swart killing have since been connected to 27 other crimes, including the assassinations of musicians DJ Sumbody and DJ Vintos, but those connections, Chaskalson warned, could now be tainted.
Mkhabela’s testimony resumed on Tuesday with five key revelations: massive case backlogs (over 41,000 pending nationwide), evidence mishandling, late uploads to IBIS, confusing docket transfers to KwaZulu-Natal, and the same Swart firearms being linked to major murder cases.
That afternoon, Captain Solomon Modisane, a senior ballistics analyst, confirmed forensic connections between Swart’s killing and several high-profile assassinations.
His analysis found that the same AK-47 and 9mm Taurus pistol were used in all four murders, namely Swart, DJ Sumbody, DJ Vintos, and businessman Don Tindleni.
But Modisane was “baffled” that the same exhibits were examined in both Pretoria and Amanzimtoti.
He said this duplication arose because investigators suspected the integrity of the Pretoria laboratory and ordered a second, independent analysis in KwaZulu-Natal.
Commissioner Sandile Khumalo questioned why the case had to cross provincial lines.
Modisane replied bluntly that there were suspicions about Pretoria’s forensic lab.
The commission shifted gears midweek, hearing from Captain Meldon Mkhatshwa, another SAPS ballistics expert, who dissected multiple technical flaws in reports authored by his colleague, Captain Makgotloe.
He confirmed that reports were backdated, pages were replaced, and ballistic terminology was misused in several serious breaches of forensic protocol.
He re-examined the Swart evidence and found that the same weapons were linked to five other Gauteng crimes, including attempted murders in Pretoria West and Lyttleton.
His testimony painted a picture of poor oversight and failing standards inside SAPS’s forensic science division.
Later, attention turned to the dramatic arrest of businessman Katiso “KT” Molefe, the alleged mastermind behind Swart’s assassination.
Testimony from Captain Maxwell Wanda and Brigadier Lesiba Mokoena described how the operation nearly descended into violence when uninvited Hawks officers arrived at Molefe’s Sandhurst mansion.
Mokoena claimed the Hawks were verifying reports of fake police on the scene.
But Captain Barry Kruger, testifying later, contradicted him, revealing that Mokoena had directed him to the scene and remained in constant WhatsApp contact during the incident, even after it was confirmed the arrest was legitimate.
WhatsApp logs and witness accounts suggested that the Hawks’ intervention, far from routine, may have been an act of internal interference.
Commissioner Sesi Baloyi called the absence of formal documentation deeply concerning.
Thursday’s proceedings detonated fresh scandal.
Witness C, testifying remotely for security reasons, detailed years of alleged cash bribes from businessman Vusimusi “Cat” Matlala to suspended Deputy National Police Commissioner Shadrack Sibiya.
He claimed Matlala personally delivered cash, sometimes up to R1 million, to Sibiya’s home, never using bank transfers.
Matlala allegedly described Sibiya as his “pitbull,” recounting payments that included R300,000 for Sibiya’s son’s wedding and R2 million toward a Midrand property.
He also claimed to have gifted Sibiya 20 impala buck and channelled bribes through a “Sergeant F. Nkosi”, who maintained two business accounts for money transfers.
Matlala also reportedly bragged about financing suspended Police Minister Senzo Mchunu’s ANC campaign.
The commission resumes on Monday.
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