By Johnathan Paoli
The head of investigations and operations at the Investigating Directorate Against Corruption (IDAC), Matthews Sesoko, has defended his decision to stay out of the controversial Crime Intelligence investigations, warning that former IDAC head Andrea Johnson repeatedly bypassed the directorate’s own safeguards and intake processes designed to prevent politically motivated investigations.
Appearing before the Madlanga Commission on Thursday, Sesoko stressed that his concerns were not about whether the CI matters warranted investigation, but rather the manner in which they were handled, and in particular the departure from the established investigation process.
“Even where there is a case to answer, it must be dealt with in accordance with the process; and where the process is not followed, the integrity of the outcome is placed at risk,” he said.
“In these circumstances, rather than insert myself into matters from which I had been excluded, I confined myself to assisting on the discrete issues on which I was asked to assist, and to advising those members of the team who approached me for guidance. I otherwise left the ID, as the head of the unit and my superior, to deal with these matters as she saw fit,” Sesoko added.
He testified that despite occupying one of the unit’s most senior operational positions, he had virtually no involvement in the CI investigations that eventually led to the arrests of several senior police officers.
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The allegations of corruption, followed a referral from suspended National Coloured Congress MP Fadiel Adams, and is linked to the appointment of Brigadier Dineo Mokwele as head of CI’s Technical Support Services and the housebreaking and robbery of CI CFO Major-General Philani Lushaba.
Sesoko said he found it highly unusual.
“Given the position I hold and the leadership role I ordinarily play, this exclusion was unusual and had not previously occurred in my time at IDAC,” he said.
Instead, he explained, he became involved only on four isolated occasions, including assisting investigator Mantsha Raphesu to obtain CI dockets, attending a meeting regarding reporting to suspended police minister Senzo Mchunu, mediating a dispute between IDAC advocate Drushantha Ramsamy and chief investigator Dylan Perumal, and later dealing with allegations that Raphesu had leaked confidential information.
Throughout his evidence, Sesoko repeatedly contrasted IDAC’s formal operating procedures with what he said happened in practice.
He told the commission that he personally helped develop the unit’s multi-layered case intake system specifically to ensure investigations could not be manipulated or influenced by political or personal interests.
The operations manual, signed by both himself and Johnson in October 2024, required complaints to be assessed collectively before authorisation.
However, Sesoko said those safeguards were never fully implemented.
“The consequence is that the single intake point and the Case Intake Committee were never fully operationalised. In practice, matters continued to be received directly mainly through the IDAC spokesperson, including by the ID herself and were not always routed through the collective assessment that the Manual and the Case Selection Criteria contemplate,” he said.
This stands in stark contrast to Johnson’s testimony, where she previously told the commission the manual was simply a draft.
Sesoko warned that bypassing those structures stripped away the protections designed to ensure objective decision-making.
Sesoko said that unlike other matters, the CI investigations were authorised without his knowledge.
“Whereas with the CI matters I only learned of them when they were already authorised, they were not discussed with me before they were authorised, I did not see Honourable Adams’ section 27 referral either,” he said.
He also described raising concerns with Johnson after learning she intended communicating with then police minister Senzo Mchunu through his chief of staff, Cedrick Nkabinde.
Sesoko testified that he warned Johnson that Nkabinde had allegedly colluded with suspects in an unrelated “Blue Lights” investigation and advised her not to communicate through him, although Johnson nevertheless requested information from him for correspondence to the minister.
Another major focus of his evidence concerned allegations that investigator Mantsha Raphesu had leaked confidential information to Nkabinde.
Sesoko told the commission Raphesu categorically denied ever contacting Nkabinde and immediately volunteered both his cellphone and a polygraph examination.
The polygraph was never conducted after the State Security Agency indicated it did not perform such tests for internal disciplinary matters.
He revealed that, while preparing his evidence for the commission, he contacted the investigating officer, who informed him the recommendation would be to close the case because no evidence implicated Raphesu.
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Explaining why he never forced his way into the CI matters, Sesoko cited previous suspensions and disciplinary battles during his time at the Independent Police Investigative Directorate, together with being kidnapped and robbed in November last year.
Despite his criticisms, Sesoko cautioned against viewing IDAC itself as compromised, describing the CI investigations as “an outlier” and recommending that the commission strengthen the legal status of the unit’s intake procedures to ensure similar departures from process cannot occur again.
The commission continues.
