Major General Feroz Khan - the beginning of the end…

Added: 2026-06-01

[00:00:00]The year is 2021.

[00:00:02]A drug syndicate has managed to ship almost 300 million rands worth of drugs to the Durban port. All that's left now is for the transportation of this precious cargo to the largest city in the country, Johannesburg. Here, it will be cut into smaller quantities and moved by land into communities within the country's borders, and a portion of the shipment might even make its way to places as far as Mozambique and Angola.

[00:00:27]The 500-km land journey to Johannesburg is not a simple one, as a maze of toll gates, highway patrols, and traffic stop and goes line the route, but the journey goes smoothly, and the container housing the drugs makes it to the city. As it leaves the N3 route near Lion's Head to make its way into local roads, the cargo truck is followed by four vehicles: a gray BMW, a VW GTI, a Kia Cerato, and a Nissan bakkie. And when the truck arrives at its destination, a warehouse in Aeroton, it's obvious that the container has been hijacked.

[00:01:00]As the truck enters the warehouse premises, three of the four cars, which have followed it on the last leg of the journey, park alongside it, and the men in the vehicles explain that they're police officers working from a tip-off.

[00:01:11]They seek permission from the driver and the warehouse personnel to search the truck, and they discover 700 kg worth of the banned substance. This is the set of circumstances that will bring to light the tension and factionalism running rife in the highest corridors of South Africa's police service.

[00:01:28]The drug bust doesn't simply end there.

[00:01:30]As the first group of policemen who arrived at the scene in tandem with the truck offload the bricks into the Nissan pickup van, a second unit linked to visible policing arrives at the scene.

[00:01:40]They're briefly told about the tip-off and discovery, and immediately things don't sit right with them.

[00:01:45]Questions arise. Where are the police photographers to document the scene?

[00:01:50]Where is the forensics team, and why isn't the haul being offloaded using SAPS standard procedures?

[00:01:56]One of the second at the police officers escalates the matter and makes a phone call to Major General Feroz Khan, who arrives the scene promptly and things go left from there.

[00:02:06]Major General Khan orders the arrest of the officers and by doing that puts a target on his back.

[00:02:12]The battle that follows gives us a peek into the instability of the South African intelligence service and things get murky when it's exposed that a hero today in the South African police services can be a villain tomorrow.

[00:02:24]The man at the center of the drama that ensues isn't without controversy.

[00:02:28]Major General Khan has been the subject of many exposés from his political ties to men like Jacob Zuma and Julius Malema to his business links to cigarette peddlers Adriano Mzotti and Muhammad Saeed.

[00:02:40]Two years after the bust, IPID initiates proceedings against him.

[00:02:44]Between the officers arrested at the scene and the man in the BMW had waited for them outside the warehouse premises.

[00:02:50]There seems to be evidence in the phones text suggesting that they were involved in a syndicate. The head of crime intelligence isn't at all interested in that. Instead, he wants the Major General Khan's head on a stake. In the pursuit of this, Lieutenant General Tumisan Nkosi Malema offers us a different version of events.

[00:03:06]According to him, a tip-off was made.

[00:03:09]Three policemen legitimately intercepted a logistics truck carrying drugs. As the police officers carried out their official duties, Major General Khan, outranking them all, interfered with these duties.

[00:03:21]IPID notes this and invites Major General Khan to make a statement detailing his grievances regarding the incident, which he does. He answers all the questions IPID has for him and makes a few disclosures on the conduct of his superiors and for about a year things are quiet.

[00:03:36]Eventually, almost a year after MG Khan submits his statement, IPID recommends that disciplinary hearing be held against the general and the officers who assisted at the arrest.

[00:03:46]On the 18th of October, he's issued with a notice to attend a disciplinary hearing, which is set to be held on the 25th of October.

[00:03:53]And this sets off alarm bells for Khan.

[00:03:56]He immediately takes the matter to the labor court.

[00:03:59]IPID has given the general a notice for an expedited process in terms of the SAPS discipline S9 regulations, and Khan believes that they're trying to catch him unprepared.

[00:04:09]The hearing under section 9 rules would mean that he wouldn't be allowed a right to recourse. So, it looks to him like maintaining the facade of due process, but knowing that a specific outcome would be the end result. Khan questions the sudden urgency considering that the bust happened 3 years order and changes his hearing to a regular one, that none of the parties will be prejudiced, and they allow for the leading of evidence, and also cross-examination to take place. 3 months after this win at the labor court, the disciplinary hearing takes place. KZN Commissioner Lieutenant General Ntlhantlha Mkhwanazi is mandated to chair it, and Major General Feroz Khan is able to table evidence regarding the incident.

[00:04:50]Some of the evidence he tables includes text messages from the man who gave the alleged tip-off, who just so happens to be the same man in the BMW. There's an exchange between him and an individual who seems to be either the owner of the drugs or represent them, and it reads as follows. The end result of the disciplinary hearing is that Major General Khan has done no wrong in this instance. So, he's exonerated by the commissioner. But, two things can be true at once, and Ntlhantlha Mkhwanazi, as the head of the PKTT, knows that Khan at his core is a corrupt individual.

[00:05:22]IPID then tries to turn the tables on Mkhwanazi by launching an investigation into him, which is one of the things that prompts the MacGenge Commission.

[00:05:30]>> out of my acceptance of an appointment to be a presiding officer of a matter against General Khan.

[00:05:38]And and I believe the time cuz the lawyers were sending me emails and and the likes. I started believing that uh so, someone perhaps wants me to back off.

[00:05:49]>> By the end of the commission, Firoz Khan's name has made an appearance, added by the very same man who had given him a lifeline 2 years earlier. He maintains that Major General Khan in that instance had simply thwarted the theft of drugs by SAPS members, but that didn't mean his hands were clean from the corruption playing the intelligence community. His words rang true in just a few weeks when news broke that Major General Khan had been arrested alongside another crime intelligence boss, Major General Kadwa. The arrest unfolded dramatically. Specialized police units moved in on him as the result of a widening corruption investigation. He was arrested alongside a senior Hawks official, Ibrahim Kadwa, and a businessman named Tariq Downs. The allegation against them was that the trio dealt illegally in precious metals, namely gold. Investigators searched the Major General's home in Houghton and gathered all evidence they believed would be vital in the case against him and his co-accused. When they appeared in court within 48 hours of the arrests, the alleged crime that was committed was exposed in front of a courtroom filled with reporters and the public. The case centered around Tariq Downs. In 2021, Tariq Downs was arrested when he was found to be in possession of 75.9 g of gold estimated to be worth more than 60,000 rand.

[00:07:06]In the interrogation room, he made a very bold claim. He said he was working under Major General Khan, and when Khan was called to confirm, he did and asked that Downs be released.

[00:07:16]The officers who had arrested him weren't satisfied with the request, so they escalated the matter to their own superior, who at the time was Major General Kadwa.

[00:07:25]And he too gave the order for the release.

[00:07:27]The police ended up stalling charges, however, and this has now come to the surface almost 5 years later.

[00:07:34]The state alleges that no undercover operation existed and that the three men must answer for having unrolled gold.

[00:07:40]And further, the two major generals need to answer for defeating the ends of justice, a term that seems to ring a bell when it comes to Major General Khan.

[00:07:49]His arrest has highlighted the struggle the country faces in combating corruption in institutions meant to uphold justice, reminding us just how non-transparent our system has been when it comes to powerful individuals. Because why did it take 5 years to make this arrest happen?

[00:08:05]Whether Major General Khan is found innocent or guilty, one thing that remains the center of my mind is that where there's smoke, there's fire, and we will eventually see just how destructive that fire has been.