By Johnathan Paoli
Suspended Police Minister Senzo Mchunu allegedly engaged in repeated and escalating attempts to interfere with a key state witness in the 2017 murder of ANC councillor Sindiso Magaqa, including efforts to influence the content of the witness’s testimony, according to explosive evidence heard before the Madlanga Commission of Inquiry.
A senior undercover SAPS Crime Intelligence operative, testifying as Witness E and currently under witness protection, told the commission that Mchunu initiated direct contact with him while the criminal case was still active, demanded access to draft statements, and used intermediaries from his office to push for a version of events favourable to the minister.
Being led in evidence by senior counsel Mahlape Sello, Witness E said the contact began in December 2024, when Mchunu personally phoned his highly restricted number — despite strict security protocols governing protected witnesses.
“I was shocked that he had access to my number,” Witness E told the commission, adding that the minister continued calling him from different numbers, claiming his phones were being monitored.
At the time, Witness E had been in the witness protection programme for five years as a state witness in the Magaqa murder case.
He testified that the frequency and tone of the calls made him increasingly uncomfortable, particularly because the criminal case was ongoing.
The situation escalated when Mchunu’s then chief of staff, Cedric Nkabinde, contacted him and said the minister had tasked him with probing the involvement of Crime Intelligence officials in the assassination.
Witness E described this as extraordinary, questioning how a political office-bearer’s chief of staff could conduct or oversee such an investigation.
He further alleged that Mchunu and Nkabinde attempted to centralise information through the minister’s office and discouraged him from involving other official structures.
During one interaction, he was instructed to resend an email he had addressed to both Mchunu and National Police Commissioner Fannie Masemola, this time excluding Masemola, after being told that senior police figures implicated in the matter were close to the commissioner.
Witness E said that during these exchanges he disclosed everything he knew about the Magaqa murder, including the involvement of Crime Intelligence officials.
“The killing of Magaqa was a crime, and I disclosed everything. I left no stone unturned,” he testified.
“When I got the information [about the killing of Magaqa], I reported the information to the people who were going to assist, but those people at that time, they didn’t know that they would be asked to assist. The informer spoke to me alone, and then I related the message to my commander, to my immediate commander in a level of the captain. I won’t mention the name. I got the information of the killing of Magaqa on the 2nd, on Sunday, the 2nd of July 2017. I got it from an informer who was hired to kill Magaqa.”
He said Mchunu repeatedly raised the names of senior figures, including Lieutenant-General Dumisani Khumalo and former police minister Bheki Cele, asking whether they were implicated.
Witness E said he categorically cleared both men.
“The minister asked me if Lieutenant General Khumalo was also involved in the planning and the killing of Sindiso Magaqa. I explicitly informed the minister that General Khumalo was not involved. When I say I explicitly explained or informed the minister, I even went further in such a way that I told him that at the time, because Sindiso Magaqa was killed or was shot in July 2017, General Khumalo was not part of Crime Intelligence at all,” said Witness E.
Sindiso Magaqa weeks before he was gunned down in 2017. PHOTO: Supplied
Following then KwaZulu-Natal police commissioner Lt-Gen Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi’s July 2025 press briefing — which led to Mchunu being placed on special leave — Witness E testified that the minister’s attempts to influence him intensified.
He alleged that Mchunu pressured him to testify before the Madlanga Commission on matters relating to unlicensed firearms and stolen vehicles linked to Crime Intelligence, and to implicate Khumalo while discrediting the Political Killings Task Team (PKTT).
Witness E said he refused, having been advised by the investigating officer that the commission would first need to liaise with prosecutors. He maintained that Mchunu was attempting to coerce him into testifying falsely and in a manner favourable to the minister.
“I have never deposed any statement on behalf of Minister Mchunu, and I have never given him any statement I made to the PKTT or to this commission,” he testified.
In September 2025, Witness E said he received a late-night call from Mchunu’s spokesperson, Kamogelo Mogotsi, who told him that statements had already been prepared on his behalf for the commission concerning the Magaqa assassination.
Witness E said he rejected this outright and insisted that any testimony be coordinated with investigators. He said he never received the alleged statements.
The commission also heard an audio recording of a conversation between Mchunu and Witness E, in which the minister discussed the statement he wanted.
Witness E said the recording was made automatically and described the minister as “desperate” to secure the statement, testifying that Mchunu told him that once he provided it, he would be “free and happy for the rest of his life”.
Witness E declined to interpret the remark but said he believed the minister was encouraging him to lie under oath.
He further testified that sensitive information he shared privately later appeared in a newspaper article, prompting him to confront Nkabinde about a possible leak. Although Mchunu later claimed to have reprimanded his chief of staff, the contact continued.
The last communication from Mchunu, Witness E said, occurred in December 2025.
He told the commission that the persistent contact, the involvement of the minister’s spokesperson and chief of staff, and repeated attempts to obtain or influence his statement amounted to coercion, compromised his safety, and undermined the integrity of the criminal justice process.
The Madlanga Commission continues on Tuesday, with KwaZulu-Natal Hawks head Major-General Lesetja Senona expected to testify.
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