Suspended Police Minister Senzo Mchunu came under renewed scrutiny in Parliament on Wednesday, but MPs appeared reluctant to make a hard finding of corruption against him, saying allegations linking him to Brown Mogotsi and alleged criminal syndicates remained unproven.

The matter was raised during the ad hoc committee’s deliberations on the alleged capture of the criminal justice system, where ANC MP Mdumiseni Ntuli said the committee’s draft report should avoid conclusions not backed by sufficient evidence, even where questions remained over the limits of ministerial powers.

He said, however, that Mchunu had exceeded his legal authority in relation to the controversial disbandment of the Political Killings Task Team.

“The minister, in my view, misconstrued his powers as there was no empowering provision in law that gave him the authority to unilaterally decide that the post should not be filled,” he said.

But Ntuli also said the report should explicitly state that evidence linking Mchunu to alleged criminal syndicates remained inconclusive.

“The evidence of its existence and the coordination is inconclusive in terms of what has appeared before us. We can’t stand up and firmly say we can say with certainty that it does exist.”

He also rejected conclusions suggesting corrupt relationships between Mchunu, and political fixer Mogotsi.

“The evidence of corruption between Mr Brown Mogotsi and Minister Mchunu is in my own view still unproven, as well as inconclusive. It relies largely on what one can call speculation and conjecture, not necessarily substantive evidence,” he said.

Ntuli added that while no definitive conclusions could be reached, it may be necessary to carry out further investigation to determine whether any link of that kind exists.

ANC MP Xola Nqola proposed wide-ranging institutional reforms, calling for a formal framework governing the movement of personnel between law enforcement agencies.

“The Minister of Justice and the Minister of Police must also develop a framework that guides the movement of personnel in between the different enforcement organs of the state,” Nqola said.

He said that Section 27 of the National Prosecuting Authority Act should be amended because the threshold for referrals to the Investigating Directorate Against Corruption (IDAC) was too low.

“The allegation is that IDAC, through that Section 27, is now being weaponised as an agency that fights individual battles instead of fighting corruption,” Nqola said.

uMkhonto weSizwe Party MP David Skosana insisted the Political Killings Task Team should be retained despite previous criticism over its costs.

“You know now seven people have been killed as we speak here. Politicians from different parties have been killed. We still need PKTT,” he said.

Skosana also supported reforms to Crime Intelligence and tighter oversight of the Secret Service Account.

“An oversight of the Secret Service account needs to be attended to because it was a cause for concern here that Crime Intelligence is infested with some dodgy characters,” he said.

ActionSA MP Dereleen James said that weaknesses in the Minister of Police’s office exposed broader governance failures.

“The IPID matter, the informality of the Chief of Staff role, collectively point to a minister’s office operating without the adequate institutional guardrails,” James said.

She recommended stricter security controls.

“The appointment of Chief of Staff and senior officials in ministerial offices within the security cluster be subject to security vetting at the top secret level as a precondition,” James said.

Meanwhile, DA MP Glynnis Breytenbach cautioned committee members against overstepping Parliament’s constitutional role. She said the committee had no authority to determine criminal guilt and that months of hearings had produced information rather than admissible evidence capable of securing prosecutions.

Committee chair Soviet Lekganyane closed proceedings by confirming that the committee’s administrative team would incorporate members’ submissions into a revised report.

“The final draft will be available by Monday so we can meet on Wednesday next week so that members can have time to go through the final draft and if there are certain matters that you want to raise with the content team,” Lekganyane said.

The committee is expected to finalise and adopt its report next week before forwarding it to the National Assembly, where Parliament will debate its findings and recommendations.

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KwaZulu-Natal police commissioner Lieutenant-General Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi warned that South Africa was at a “crossroads” over corruption and compromised institutions, using his acceptance of the National Press Club’s 2025 Newsmaker of the Year award to defend his July 2025 media briefing that triggered the Madlanga Commission.

Speaking at the press club’s gala dinner at the CSIR International Convention Centre in Pretoria on Friday night, Mkhwanazi said his 6 July 2025 briefing was not an attempt to court popularity, but an act of duty.

“The media briefing of 6 July 2025 was not an exercise in popularity. It was not a campaign. It was not an attempt to become a public figure. It was an act of duty,” he said.

His remarks came on the same day the Madlanga Commission submitted its second interim report to President Cyril Ramaphosa, marking a new stage in the inquiry into allegations of criminality, political interference and corruption in South Africa’s criminal justice system.

“When institutions begin to fear the truth more than they fear criminality, society enters dangerous territory,” Mkhwanazi said. “South Africa is standing at such a crossroads.”

He added: “The truth is painful; A capable state cannot coexist with compromised institutions.”

Mkhwanazi was named the newsmaker of the year after his July briefing placed allegations of criminal infiltration of law enforcement and intelligence structures at the centre of South Africa’s political and criminal justice debate.

In that briefing, Mkhwanazi alleged the existence of a sophisticated criminal syndicate that had infiltrated law enforcement and intelligence structures. He also alleged that then-police minister Senzo Mchunu had interfered in sensitive police investigations and colluded with business people to disband the KwaZulu-Natal political killings task team.

Mchunu has denied the allegations. Ramaphosa later placed him on leave and announced the judicial commission of inquiry, chaired by Justice Mbuyiseli Madlanga, to investigate the claims.

Said Mkhwanazi during his speech: “We cannot continue to normalise corruption. We cannot continue to protect incompetence. We cannot continue to romanticise criminality while honest citizens live behind burglar bars, businesses collapse under extortion, communities are terrorised by organised crime and public trust in institutions continues to erode.”

He said the “spring cleaning” confronting the criminal justice system should not be selective and must extend across government departments, municipalities, law enforcement agencies, the private sector and the media.

“If South Africa is serious about a national reset, then that reset must include all of us; political leadership, law enforcement, the judiciary, business, civil society and the media,” he said. “No institution can place itself above scrutiny while demanding accountability from others.”

Mkhwanazi said accepting the award should not be read as a sign that “all is well” in the country.

“It is precisely because all is not well that every one of us must recommit ourselves to making it well,” he said.

He accepted the award on behalf of police officers, detectives and members who, he said, continued to serve despite intimidation, limited resources and criticism.

“There are many honest and committed police officers in this country. Men and women who refuse to surrender this organisation to corruption, criminal infiltration or institutional decay,” he said.

“History will not judge us by the titles we held, the awards we collected or the speeches we delivered. History will judge us by whether we defended the truth when it mattered.”

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The Madlanga Commission has submitted its second interim report to President Cyril Ramaphosa, as the inquiry into alleged criminality, political interference and corruption in the criminal justice system moves into its next phase of hearings.

Commission spokesperson Jeremy Michaels said in a statement late on Friday that the report had been handed to the president in line with the deadline set when its term was extended earlier this year.

Commission chairperson, Justice Mbuyiseli Madlanga, assisted by Advocate Sesi Baloyi SC and Advocate Sandile Khumalo SC, was appointed by Ramaphosa on 23 July 2025 to investigate allegations made about criminal infiltration of SAPS on 6 July 2025 by KwaZulu-Natal police commissioner Lieutenant-General Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi.

The commission submitted its first interim report on 17 December 2025 before taking a break from public hearings. It resumed work on 5 January 2026 and began public hearings again on 26 January.

Since then, the commission has heard evidence from 32 witnesses over 64 days of hearings, covering the South African Police Service, the Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Police Department and the Tshwane Metropolitan Police Department, said Michaels.

Ramaphosa extended the commission’s term on 12 March 2026, moving its deadline from 17 March to 31 August 2026. The extension required the commission to submit a second interim report by 29 May 2026 and a final report by 31 August 2026.

The commission is expected to resume public hearings on Monday, 1 June 2026, with further testimony relating to the Port Shepstone drug bust.

Several witnesses who have previously appeared before the commission are expected to return, including Police Minister Senzo Mchunu, Major-General Lesetja Senona and EMPD Deputy Chief Julius Mkhwanazi.

Michaels said a number of new witnesses were also under subpoena to appear in the coming weeks.

The inquiry will continue to run its first two phases in parallel. Phase one deals with the airing of allegations, while phase two focuses on responses by implicated individuals to specific allegations against them and gives those implicated an opportunity to give their version.

The commission said an announcement would be made in due course on phase three, which will see Mkhwanazi, Lieutenant-General Dumisani Khumalo, and others return to the witness stand.

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South Africa does not suffer from a shortage of plans, promises, panels or proclamations. It suffers, increasingly, from a shortage of consequence.

That is why the real cost of indecision under President Cyril Ramaphosa is not merely stylistic or political. It is constitutional, economic and moral.

A government that delays action in the face of serious wrongdoing does not merely look weak. It weakens the state itself.

It tells citizens that accountability can wait, that trust can be stretched, and that misconduct at the highest levels may yet be managed by process rather than answered by consequence.

President Ramaphosa has defended his style of leadership by describing himself as a consensus-seeker. Consensus, of course, is not a vice in a constitutional democracy.

South Africa is a plural society and prudence has its place. But there is a decisive difference between consultation and hesitation, between deliberation and drift.

Consensus is a virtue only when it serves decision. When it becomes a substitute for decision, it ceases to be statesmanship and becomes inertia.

That distinction matters because the Constitution does not imagine a passive presidency.

Sections 83 and 85 vest the President with the enormous authority and responsibility to uphold the Constitution and exercise the executive authority of the Republic.

Section 91 empowers him to appoint and dismiss ministers.

Section 195 demands accountable, efficient and effective public administration.

Section 237 is even more pointed: constitutional obligations must be performed diligently and without delay.

Measured against that standard, Ramaphosa’s presidency has too often preferred process over consequence.

This is not to deny his strengths. He helped steady the country after the wreckage of the Zuma years, preserved institutional continuity, and brokered a Government of National Unity after the 2024 election. He has supported reforms in energy and public administration.

But the central weakness of his presidency remains what the FW de Klerk Foundation’s Constitution and the Cabinet Report Card identified: he is a consensus-builder hampered by scandal and inertia. He has often looked more comfortable containing crises than resolving them.

The pattern is familiar. South Africa encounters scandal, dysfunction or institutional rot. The public waits for the firm assertion of executive authority. Instead, it is offered a commission, a panel, a task team, an advisory council, or another process of consultation.

None of these instruments is illegitimate in itself. Commissions can uncover truth, preserve due process, and build a factual record. But they are tools, not achievements.

They cannot become a standing substitute for executive judgment, especially where the President already has both the constitutional authority and the political duty to act.

The handling of the allegations surrounding Police Minister Senzo Mchunu is a case in point.

Faced with grave claims touching the integrity of the criminal justice system, the President chose to establish the Madlanga Commission and place the minister on leave rather than dismiss him outright.

Accountability threshold

One need not pre-judge criminal guilt to see the problem. The issue is not whether a president may await legal proof before imprisonment. Of course he must. The issue is whether political accountability requires a lower threshold than criminal conviction when the credibility of policing itself is at stake.

A president does not need a commission to tell him that public confidence in law enforcement is a constitutional asset. When that confidence is badly shaken, delay carries its own cost.

That cost is measured partly in money. South Africa has already spent enormous sums on commissions of inquiry.

The Zondo Commission alone cost close to a billion rand. The Madlanga Commission carries a substantial budget of its own (about R150 million over six months, to be precise).

Yet the larger cost lies elsewhere: in the opportunity cost of a state that knows much, reports much and acts too little.

South Africans do not need further proof that corruption has crippled institutions, that policing is distrusted, that freight collapse has harmed exports, or that the energy crisis has inflicted economic pain. We know this. The country’s problem is not ignorance. It is the conversion of knowledge into consequence.

Here, the phrase “culture of impunity” becomes essential. Impunity flourishes when people in positions of power come to believe that exposure is survivable, that delay is manageable, and that consequences are negotiable.

A commission may produce findings. A report may be tabled. But if the chain between wrongdoing and visible accountability is too weak, the lesson absorbed by the political class is obvious: wait it out. In that environment, corruption is not merely illegal. It becomes normalised.

Squandered public trust

This is not an abstract concern. Public trust is a real national resource and South Africa is squandering it. Trust in the police is weak. Perceptions of corruption remain stubbornly high. Confidence in political leadership has eroded.

Citizens may not read government gazettes or commission reports, but they understand signals.

They understand when implicated figures remain in office. They understand when scandal is met not with clarity but with choreography. And they draw the obvious conclusion: that there is one standard for ordinary South Africans and another for the politically connected.

History shows that democratic leadership in South Africa has not always been so hesitant. FW de Klerk’s decisions in February 1990 altered the country’s trajectory because he understood that there are moments when delay becomes more dangerous than action.

Thabo Mbeki’s dismissal of Jacob Zuma as Deputy President in 2005 demonstrated a willingness to impose political consequence without waiting for endless institutional theatre.

Even the ANC’s decision to recall Jacob Zuma in 2018 showed that when urgency is truly felt, South African politics is capable of moving with startling speed.

The point is not that every quick decision is wise. It is that decisive leadership is possible, constitutional, and sometimes necessary.

Ramaphosa’s defenders will say that South Africa’s complexities demand caution. That is true up to a point.

But caution cannot become a permanent alibi. The President is not merely the chair of an endless consultation. He is the head of the national executive. He was not elected to be a commentator on institutional decline. He was elected to arrest it.

At some point, the invocation of process ceases to reassure and begins to sound like evasion.

Moral capital

The tragedy is that Ramaphosa entered office with extraordinary moral capital.

He represented, for many South Africans, the promise of renewal after state capture. He spoke the language of reform, integrity, and a capable state. Yet a president who repeatedly hesitates to exercise power sends exactly the wrong message to those who abuse it. In politics, tone is not cosmetic. It is instructional.

South Africa cannot afford that lesson any longer. We are too poor for drift, too unequal for delay and too wounded by corruption to indulge another season of procedural postponement.

The constitutional demand is not for recklessness, but for diligent, rational and timely action. That is the standard. Not performative outrage. Not endless inquiry. Action.

The cost of indecision, then, is not only counted in rands, though it is counted there too.

It is counted in weakened institutions, delayed reform, diminished trust and the spread of a culture of impunity. A democracy is damaged not only when leaders act unlawfully, but also when they refuse to act with the urgency that constitutional government requires.

South Africa does not need a president who merely reads the room. It needs one who is prepared, when the country demands it, to lead it.

Ismail Joosub is manager of the Constitutional Advancement Programme at the FW de Klerk Foundation.

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Former Deputy National Police Commissioner for Support Services Lieutenant-General Francinah Vuma told Parliament on Wednesday that she believes she was pushed out of active service because she pursued disciplinary investigations against senior South African Police Service (SAPS) officials.

She made the statements while appearing before the ad hoc committee that is investigating allegations of political interference in and criminal infiltration of the country’s justice system.

“My suspicion was that because I was busy with these matters, making follow-ups and ensuring that disciplinary steps were taken in the relevant business units, it might have been one of the reasons they decided to remove me from office,” Vuma said.

Vuma said she was suspended for three and a half years on full pay while another officer was appointed in an acting capacity to perform the same role.

“While they are paying me money, they are appointing other lieutenant generals to act in my positions. And they are paying them money. So they are paying two salaries for one position, in one post,” she said.

EFF leader Julius Malema questioned why disciplinary proceedings against her were never concluded, saying that the prolonged suspension amounted in practice to an unlawful dismissal.

“It is correct. They will say: those people, they don’t want to see you. They say, as long as you stay at home, it’s fine,” Vuma responded.

MK Party MP Sibonelo Nomvalo asked whether her testimony pointed to ministerial interference that ran deeper than had previously been understood.

“In a day, we will receive two or three directives that say: ‘I want a response by four o’clock’ or I want a response by a certain time frame. It was actually deeper than what we understand,” Vuma replied.

ANC MP Xola Nqola focused on whether oversight bodies had been compromised and whether Vuma had received unlawful instructions. Vuma said National Police Commissioner General Fannie Masemola had instructed her to abandon investigations.

“General Masemola, when I was giving him feedback on the status of disciplinary matters, he said ‘you should leave these things to die a silent death’,” Vuma said.

IFP MP Albert Mncwango asked Vuma to clarify her claim that Masemola had said he was “under pressure from the top”.

“What did you understand the top to be?” Mncwango asked.

Vuma said she had assumed, in the circumstances, that Masemola was referring to since suspended Police Minister Senzo Mchunu.

Patriotic Alliance MP Ashley Sauls compared SAPS leadership dynamics to gang hierarchies, asking whether those who tried to do the right thing were treated as enemies.

“Those who want to do right are the enemy. Is that how the SAPS system has become?” he asked.

“It is more or less the same as what you just described. People who are principled are being discarded and discriminated against or victimised,” Vuma responded.

Vuma said she had rejected an offer of early retirement that was tied to a non-disclosure agreement.

“An offer was made to me that I must accept to retire early on condition that they will pay me beyond my retirement period. And in that offer, I was supposed to sign a non-disclosure agreement, which I refused because my determination was to clear my name,” she said.

Controversial businessman Kishene Chetty is expected to appear before the committee as a public participant on Thursday.

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Acting Police Minister Firoz Cachalia has announced government plans to “reset” the country’s criminal justice system and policing, describing it as the most decisive intervention against corruption and organised crime in more than a decade.

Speaking during the parliamentary debate on the State of the Nation Address (SONA), Cachalia confirmed immediate security deployments and concrete steps to implement the findings of the Madlanga Commission of Inquiry.

Addressing a joint sitting of Parliament, he said President Cyril Ramaphosa had placed public safety and institutional integrity at the centre of the country’s future.

“With respect to the fight against corruption, violent crime and organised crime, including gang violence and illegal mining, the President’s SONA address on 12 February was, in my opinion, the most significant in the last decade,” Cachalia said.

He confirmed that the security cluster’s senior leadership had already acted and that specialised policing capacity would be strengthened urgently.

“I have asked the National Commissioner to take further steps to strengthen the anti-gang units and to deploy specialised units of the South African Police Service, on which I’m expecting a report in the next two weeks,” he said.

Cachalia stressed that intelligence-led policing would be central, with multidisciplinary task teams involving the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA), Special Investigating Unit (SIU) and South African Revenue Service (SARS) targeting the leadership, finances, firearms and logistics of criminal cartels.

He framed the Madlanga Commission as a turning point for reform.

“I have made it clear that the establishment of the Madlanga Commission is a moment for the country to reset policing on a positive trajectory,” he said.

Interim recommendations are already being implemented, he added, revealing plans for a National Police Board.

Draft legislation has been prepared, and an interim governance panel is being considered to oversee reforms while the law is finalised.

Defence Deputy Minister Bantu Holomisa acknowledged systemic corruption across the state, including the security sector.

“The honeymoon is over. Corruption and maladministration have not merely touched the state; they have engulfed it, reaching even into our law enforcement agencies,” Holomisa said.

Minister in the Presidency Khumbudzo Ntshavheni said implementation of the commission’s findings was already under way, including the re-vetting of senior SAPS and metro police officials by the State Security Agency (SSA).

She confirmed that officials implicated before the commission would be prioritised and that progress was being made on reforms flowing from the Zondo Commission.

EFF leader Julius Malema accused the president of presiding over a collapse of law enforcement and relying on the army as a last resort.

“Under your term crime has spiralled out of control, and your deployment of the army is a last resort. You are admitting that you have failed to fight crime,” Malema said.

He argued that crime could not be solved through force alone, linking criminality to unemployment, substance abuse and school dropouts.

He also alleged deep political interference in law enforcement and intelligence structures, saying the ruling party was the “biggest syndicate”.

Malema further referenced former police minister Senzo Mchunu, accusing the president of retaining him “at the taxpayer’s expense”.

ActionSA parliamentary leader Athol Trollip challenged Ramaphosa’s credibility on corruption, raising the issue of the alleged illicit possession of foreign currency and the failure to report its theft to the police.

ANC chief whip Mdumiseni Ntuli defended the reform agenda, citing the Criminal Justice Reform Initiative and the Whistle-Blower Protection Bill as measures aimed at addressing the “moral rot” exposed in parliamentary processes and the commission.

DA leader John Steenhuisen called for an end to cadre deployment and sustained intelligence-led policing, while Rise Mzansi leader Songezo Zibi urged swift, well-resourced re-vetting and severe consequences for officials implicated in what he described as “treason”.

“We must replace failing race-based empowerment frameworks with ones that tackle poverty. The DA’s ‘Economic Inclusion for All’ Bill represents a significant step toward achieving a vision of genuine economic empowerment for ALL South Africans and is the type of reform our country urgently needs,” said Steenhuisen.

“Second, we must get local government working. Outlaw cadre deployment once and for all, appoint on merit, hold officials accountable, and root out corruption. competence must determine who runs our cities and towns so that our people are served by their local government, not the other way around.”

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ALSO READ: ANALYSIS: What comes next for Senzo Mchunu amid secret donations scandal?

Critics argue that Ramaphosa’s reluctance to act decisively raises questions about accountability and political shielding.

Despite the Presidency’s insistence that Mchunu remains on special leave pending the commission’s final report, several serious allegations continue to cloud his tenure.

• Mchunu admitted to dissolving the PKTT without consulting National Police Commissioner Fannie Masemola.
  
  This undermined investigations into politically linked murders, leaving dockets stranded at head office and stalling justice.

• Testimony before the Madlanga Commission alleged that Mchunu improperly instructed operational decisions, crossing boundaries between political oversight and police command structures.

• Witnesses implicated Mchunu in associations with alleged cartel kingpin Vusimuzi “Cat” Matlala, though he has dismissed these claims as baseless.

• The commission highlighted that Mchunu failed to conduct a review of the task team before shutting it down, raising concerns about reckless governance.

ALSO READ: Thabo Bester joins Cat Matlala in Kokstad’s fortress prison eBongweni Super Maximum Correctional Centre

• Separate investigations have been launched into claims that Mchunu interfered with police investigations to protect politically connected individuals.

While Mchunu faces an arsenal of allegations, Presidential spokesperson Vincent Magwenya insists that Ramaphosa is not protecting Mchunu, but rather ensuring due process.

The President has argued that acting prematurely could invite claims of unfairness, according to Magwenya.

This despite critics points that Ramaphosa swiftly authorized investigations into other officials while Mchunu remained on paid leave, fueling suspicions of preferential treatment.

If Mchunu has already conceded to disbanding the PKTT without consultation, is that not serious enough for immediate dismissal?

Why does Ramaphosa appear hesitant to act against a minister facing multiple allegations, while others have been referred for criminal investigation?

Does the President’s reliance on the commission’s final report reflect respect for constitutional process, or a calculated delay to shield an ally?

ALSO READ: Tribunal clears Eastern Cape Judge President Mbenenge of gross misconduct allegations

Civil society groups are divided. Some argue Mchunu acted within his ministerial powers, citing constitutional authority over policing policy. Others, including watchdogs like OUTA, demand his dismissal, calling his continued salary amid suspension a misuse of taxpayer funds.

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Suspended Police Minister Senzo Mchunu on Tuesday night rejected allegations made by an undercover criminal intelligence operative, known as Witness E, at the Madlanga Commission earlier in the day, calling the testimony “inaccurate and untruthful”.

“I deny the allegations he makes about me, including the interactions on his statements,” Mchunu said in a statement, adding that his legal team was dealing with the matter.

ALSO READ: Insane amount of money being spent on RAF legal fees, Zibi says

Mchunu said he would respond formally to the allegations when he next appeared before the commission.

During his testimony on Tuesday, Witness E alleged that the former minister pressured him to provide a statement to the commission that would favour Mchunu.  

He told the inquiry that Mchunu had repeatedly contacted him from various phone numbers since last year, allegedly saying he believed his communications were being monitored.

According to Witness E, Mchunu asked him to look for evidence of alleged abuses by the Political Killings Task Team (PKTT), despite the witness telling him he had never worked with the unit and was unaware of any victims of alleged abuse.

He further alleged that Mchunu dictated elements of a proposed statement for submission to lawyers and possible use before the commission.

The statement, Witness E claimed, was intended to allege that crime intelligence had supplied unlicensed firearms and a stolen vehicle, via a secret service account, to hitmen implicated in the 2017 assassination of former ANCYL secretary general, Sindiso Magaqa.  

ALSO READ: Senona describes Matlala as “a younger brother”, claims Mkhwanazi threatened him

The statement also allegedly sought to implicate Crime Intelligence head Lieutenant General Dumisani Khumalo in covering up wrongdoing by members of the unit.

Witness E said Mchunu had asked him who the police members were who were involved in the assassination. He said Mchunu also asked him if Khumalo had been involved.

“I told him [that in] July 2017, General Khumalo was not part of Crime Intelligence and not in KZN. I made it clear to the minister that Khumalo was not involved in the assassination and only came to know of him later on.”

He said he refused to comply and instead misled Mchunu into believing he would draft the statement, despite having no intention of doing so.

The commission continues.

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KwaZulu-Natal Hawks boss Major-General Lesetja Senona is scheduled to appear before the Madlanga Commission on Tuesday.

The inquiry resumed public hearings on Monday, its first sitting for 2026, and continues to hear evidence into alleged political interference and corruption in the criminal justice system.

Senona’s testimony was postponed in November last year, by agreement, to January.

Inside Politics has previously reported that earlier commission testimony alleged Senona had close dealings with tenderpreneur and alleged underworld figure Vusimuzi “Cat” Matlala, relating to a R360 million police health services tender.

“Witness X” previously told the commission Senona helped Matlala with the payment of invoices submitted by Matlala’s company and shared information related to the Political Killings Task Team (PKTT), and that Matlala had promised to purchase a property for Senona’s son.

“Witness C”, a PKTT member who testified before the commission, alleged Matlala secured a large police tender with Senona’s assistance and paid kickbacks to senior officers through an intermediary.

Witness C also testified that Matlala allegedly claimed he had ties to senior police figures, including Senona.

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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.

INSIDE POLITICS

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