By Marcus Moloko
The Judicial Commission of Inquiry into Criminality, Political Interference, and Corruption in the Criminal Justice System, better known as the Madlanga Commission, is expected to resume its hearings this month after President Cyril Ramaphosa received its interim report in December.
Chaired by retired Constitutional Court Justice Mbuyiseli Madlanga, the commission has already heard explosive testimony from more than 20 witnesses since it started hearings in September 2025.
When proceedings resume, the spotlight will fall on how individuals with questionable backgrounds managed to gain access to the highest echelons of government.
One of the most pressing voices in this debate is Advocate Muzi Sikhakhane SC, who has argued that the commission must go beyond simply cataloguing allegations.
Sikhakhane insists that lawyers are not trained to find the truth. “they go to court with a particular theory of the case to present it as fact. You need people who will probe…” to get to a particular truth, he said.
“Instead of rubbishing the witness, the real question we should be asking for policy purposes is how does a guy like that become so close to ministers and people in sensitive positions.”
That was the policy question, Sikhakhane said.
The Madlanga Commission should be asking deeper questions about policy failures that allowed figures such as Brown Mogotsi to get close to senior officials.
The real inquiry, Sikhakhane suggested, was not just who was involved, but how the system enabled it.
Mogotsi’s proximity to powerful figures has raised eyebrows, but he is not alone.
Testimony before the commission has revealed that senior police officials and intelligence operatives were also entangled in networks of influence that blurred the line between governance and criminality.
KwaZulu-Natal Police Commissioner Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi alleged that top politicians and officials deliberately dismantled investigative task teams probing political killings, further signalling how entrenched these relationships were.
Sikhakhane’s intervention reframes the debate, rather than focusing solely on personalities, he argues that the commission must interrogate structural weaknesses in policy and oversight.
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