Madlanga Commission Wrap | High profile arrests of persons linked to probe garner praise & criticism

Added: 2026-05-25

[00:00:11]Good afternoon and thank you for staying with us. Since the Madlanga Commission began its hearings in September last year. In total, the commission has heard 60 witnesses over 109 days of hearings since Kesan and top cop Lieutenant General Tantam Kwanazi first appeared to place his allegations under oath. With one interim report handed in and the second on the way, law enforcement has wasted no time pouncing on individuals who have been implicated in the probe in a series of arrests that have garnered praise and criticism. I'm Cany Mapanga and this is the Madlang app.

[00:00:46]The national commissioner hasn't yet reported back to me on the exact composition of the special investigation task team but it will include investigators uh and prosecutors.

[00:01:01]Their mandate will be to investigate all the individuals. There are 14 of them.

[00:01:07]Uh five um police officers, senior police officers and then the rest are uh either officials or um EMPD officers in Kurilleni.

[00:01:22]>> The task team that was appointed um and established by the national commissioner was formed and started doing its work.

[00:01:31]There was a a witness that came forward and brought information on this case to the task team.

[00:01:38]>> The summons were served today this morning to him and like I said even in the morning before we came to this uh court we cannot divulge the content of all the charges at the moment until they presented to him. Yeah, obviously wherever he is he knows because it has been served on him.

[00:01:57]In a first a commission of inquiry is conducting its work while there is a commission's recommendations task team established to investigate referrals emanating from this body. Let's take you back to where this web of allegations began and that is in that July 2025 media briefing where lieutenant Jennum Kwanazi detailed the alleged extent of the infiltration of cartels in the criminal justice system.

[00:02:20]And I can confirm before the South Africans today that the investigation which these members were involved with in Hing has unmasked the syndicate and this syndicate involves amongst others politicians who are currently serving in parliament.

[00:02:37]The law enforcement officers include the members of the South African Police Service, the Metrop Police and Correctional Services.

[00:02:47]They include prosecutors in Haen province, the judiciary and all these are controlled by the drug cartel as well as business people in that province of Hing.

[00:03:05]Now since Minanazi repeated the explosive allegations of an alleged infiltration in the criminal justice system under oath, the commission has taken a life of its own as it has explored themes that go beyond the allegations which sought to test among other things where the police minister Senzun Kunu disbanded the PKTT for an alleged improper motive. While that evidence still remains in the air, the commission has covered other themes which include alleged criminality and corruption in the South African Police Services, EMPD, TMPD, as well as evidence related to major drug busts in Clouteng and Guazulu Natau.

[00:03:42]In the midst of all this evidence, several high-profile arrests have been made against individuals that have appeared before the commission. Let's take a look at some of these cases.

[00:03:52]Minazi was arrested just days after the continuation of his testimony at the commission. Many speculated that it could be related to the dark allegations that haunt his tenor in the EMPD which range from extortion, theft, kidnapping, and even the brutal murder of Emanuel Benze. James Konazi, however, was arrested for an unrelated matter which deals with an alleged fraudulent scheme designed to help his co-accuse, the Egeni city manager, Kakiso Leutra, to evade criminal prosecution.

[00:04:22]Northwest businessman was also nabbed after his testimony at the Madanga Commission and arrested in connection with an event that is unrelated to his testimony at the probe.

[00:04:34]We were introduced to Brown Mahorti as an alleged political fixer who allegedly played a middleman role for police minister Senkunu and alleged cartel figures namely Vousimuzi Cat Matlala.

[00:04:45]But that is not why he was arrested.

[00:04:47]Mhorti was arrested for defeating the ends of justice stemming from a November 2025 shooting that he allegedly staged in first lures and later reported as an attempted assassination on his life.

[00:05:00]South Africa's top cop General Funny Masamola featured in testimony at the Midlanga Commission but not as an implicated person.

[00:05:10]He joins a long list of accused in the Medicare 24 SAPs contract to the tune of millions. Masimola, however, is charged with four counts of contravening the PFMA. This is in connection with his alleged gross negligence and failure as an accounting officer to provide proper oversight regarding this irregular contract.

[00:05:31]Meanwhile, in the cases against alleged compromised cops that rest on the shoulders of police watchdog APED, there's been little to no updates on the status of these matters. IP declined an invitation to comment on these cases.

[00:05:43]However, the most prominent being a number of cases opened against MPD officials ranging from theft, truck hijackings, and even the well-known Emanuel Ben murder case, which has already lost four of its 12 suspects.

[00:05:55]Witness D, aka Mars from the Murva, who testified on this murder, already gave an indication as to why the case, which is well known to officers, is not seeing progress.

[00:06:07]>> Um, they also indicated to me that this group is very dangerous. They also indicated to me that they will try and try and see where they can go with this statement because at this stage most of the community which is to say police and private sector knew of the incident.

[00:06:26]most of the most of the the community knew who was involved with the incident to a point that even even going to into a public place I would meet or see a police officer he would ask me what's happening with the case um are you okay um so a lot of people knew about what had transpired but I feel and the idea that I got or the impression that I got from from most of the engagements is that the individuals were too scared to actually run with the docket in terms of opening a docket. There was already a docket opened. So my do my statement would have been a add-on an extraure on the on the docket. But a lot of these police officers didn't want to entertain that because of safety reasons.

[00:07:17]>> All right. Coming up, experts will help us look at these cases and what it may possibly tell us about the strategy of the task team as well as the criticisms against these high-profile arrests amid long-standing calls for cold cases to be resolved. All that and more after the break.

[00:07:42]And welcome back. Amid advancements on these high-profile cases, Afform's private prosecution unit holds the view that these arrests have in fact exposed what it terms as the state's regrettable attitude that not all crime victims are equal in its eyes.

[00:08:00]Afreform's private prosecution unit has taken up six cases with the South African Police Services in which suspects and accused persons in rape, murder, and GBV matters have been on the run for years. This includes the case of a woman who was allegedly kidnapped, raped, and later shot several times at point blank range by her ex-boyfriend Mongiseni Zuan in 2021. She remains in hiding, fearing he will return to kill her. As well as the case of Hela Nafali, who was allegedly stabbed multiple times with a screwdriver by Gregory Clayhans in December 2022 to name a few.

[00:08:37]To unpack this further, we are joined by Afroform's PPU spokesperson that is Barry Baitman and Jeremy Viri who is the former head of the detectives in the Western Cape. Thank you so much for joining us and welcome to connecting the dots.

[00:08:52]>> Good afternoon Kenny.

[00:08:53]>> Good afternoon.

[00:08:54]>> All right, I think where we can start uh Jeremy is with you. We are seeing a number of arrests against persons who are implicated in the Madanga Commission although some are unrelated. What do you make of these arrests?

[00:09:07]I think a lot of work now needs to done to be done to move from the point of verbal allegations made oral evidence given to the extent of um proving what is alleged.

[00:09:22]Um and that pro the fact that the commission has a dedicated investigation team to do that bodess well for how speedily some of these matters will be dealt with.

[00:09:35]Um I think one of the questions one can ask at this point in time that one does not have clarity of is whether there is a dedicated team of prosecutors that are that is actually working with this team.

[00:09:52]So one would assume that if the methodology is followed that for example the PKDT follows and that would be a logical step to further expedite matters now but it all in all it is a positive development but that the team exists and that we're not going to wait till the end of a commission and the report and then start to come out of the blocks and and and actually investigate matters.

[00:10:18]Just to add to that uh Jeremy, do you think that in terms of the cases and the charges that you are seeing in terms of this particular task team, is it somewhat strategic to go for these other charges instead of the big task of trying to tackle the allegations that are emanating outside of the uh Madango Commission which include murder, theft, extortion, hijacking. Looking at the threshold for matters of that specific scope, do you think with these cases such as defeating the ends of justice, which has nothing to do with Brian Mahort's time on the stand are quite strategic for this particular task team?

[00:10:56]>> Yes, I think they are. But I think if you want he's talking about the cold cold case approach classically then if you're looking at organized criminals for example or gang leaders like I dealt with in the province in the Western Cape I go for cases when there were still amateur criminals.

[00:11:14]So the little assault GBH they had or the knifing or the drive by shooting in which we didn't have enough evidence. I go back to that cases or where we found a partial fingerprint run it through the system now and see what now that we have the kind of technology of aphus for example to see whether we can match things faster than what we had before we had those systems so there's a large amount there's various techniques can break but I would certainly go and look at these high-profile criminals if one is looked for example at cat for example you know cat was comes from Balori. We know he had association with Boo Haram, the gang group there in particular. I would go look at all the earlier cases of Boo Haram to look at where I can pick him up on a smaller case and bring to the court a historical picture of the I might not get him on the big case where he gave an instruction but there might be some stage where his hands was much more dirtier than now. So I would probe to go and find those cases. I would for example be focusing on who was the network around him at that point in time. Are they still with him? How can I access that from an intelligence perspective to excavate past misdemeanors or crimes the person might have admitted, >> might have committed. I will look at who were the witnesses 10 or 15 years ago.

[00:12:47]They might have been intimidated and felt scared back then. But maybe today times have changed now that cat is behind bars for example. Maybe they would be much more forthcoming and his image is not as powerful as it was before. So these are all factors that goes into cold case investigations and you one is very selective >> about what one wants you know and the approach require requires deep intelligence probing and it requires quite a quite a substantial amount of work and I would hope that the focus on him now by the Mlanga commission would also look at the start of his criminal career. There might be quite a few cases where we could have we could time down faster and we mustn't wait for these big big cases and build I mean I don't believe in the approach that says we take 50 cases to court and it takes us 10 years to go through court. If I can get you down on a simple sentence of five years on one particular like a vehicle theft for example, I can always take you to court while you're serving the sentence on the other matters. Mhm.

[00:14:00]>> So, so go for the quick win. Go for the fast one that gives us to keep the person incarcerated on an old case and then deliver on the other cases. We have years after you in prison to actually make sure we exhaust all possible options with you.

[00:14:21]>> And Barry, let me just rope you in there. You've heard Jeremy's explanation regarding the strategy that um has seemingly been taken by the task team and AFOR's private prosecution unit has had some criticism against these particular arrests which is I think the question is what about the ordinary cases that affect ordinary South Africans like me and you?

[00:14:42]>> Yeah. The criticism is not so much that these arrests have taken place. It's fantastic that the police are capable of moving so quickly on available evidence.

[00:14:50]Our criticism is rather that there are other cases and in we've just chosen six of ours. We've got many others in our um that our office is dealing with um where they have been investigated, suspects have been identified. In some cases, trial dates have been set and the accused simply don't appear um and the police have now for years failed to taken up that information and track down these individuals to ensure that they appear before court. The reason we raised this is we watched what was happening in the case of Mr. Fidil Adams where over several days the police threw significant resources at locating uh Mr. Adams including raiding at least three properties. Um it's alleged that a child was assaulted in the one eventually securing the arrest of Mr. Adams. So they went to great lengths then transporting him up to um Quazul Nutell and eventually the bail application. Now in that bail application it was quite remarkable what we witnessed there.

[00:15:44]Within a week, the state and investigators had managed to secure several social media videos, prepared it as evidence, ready to proceed and present it in court. Now, in our experience, this is almost unheard of.

[00:15:56]We're dealing with some of our cases where CCTV footage, surveillance footage of crimes being committed, we can't gift it to an investigating office. They just don't want to come and take it from us and we want to give it to them. This is going on for years. I just want to bring in another example and we saw it this week was the case of Mr. Sauten. He's been accused of the murder of Mr. Famva.

[00:16:16]You had an insert there earlier where you played some of his evidence.

[00:16:20]He is now applying for bail and the investigating officer provided a statement there. Since the murder in December last year and the subsequent arrest of Mr. Seni in I think it was February or early March this year, the state has managed to obtain um cell phone data records, tower dump records, the tracker data records. They've managed to conduct ballistic analysis of the cartridges found on the scene against the firearms that were seized um including the receivers and the different parts of the firearm. They've got a full ballistic report and this is just for the bail application and they're ready basically with a docket ready case um to proceed to trial already in the bail application. We're saying we've got cases where trials are ready but the people have absconded.

[00:17:05]police find these people. The the failure that the the investigating officers are failing to act on these particular matters. Um it's it's basically demonstrating that where there is the will, the police can do it, but they're quite happy to throw their arms up and not do it for regular South Africans like you and I.

[00:17:22]>> Indeed. Uh Barry, and you've also raised six cases where there is that taking place, where there were suspects that may have made some court appearances and then now you can't locate them. and it's been a number of years since that has taken place. Now, you have written to the acting national commissioner criticizing what you describe as this disproportionate allocation of resources. What is the engagement that you've received, if any, from the office of the acting national commissioner since you wrote that correspondence to the team?

[00:17:53]>> Unfortunately, we've not had any response to our correspondence, but as we or ordinarily do in our our engagements with the police and the NPA, we will continue to engage with them. We would just like to at least see in the now let me just say this is we've raised this with the national commission in each of those cases we've been dealing with the um relevant stations or in some instance up to provincial level to try and encourage or get some response. Our worst of those Kenny is that Cleveland case you referred to there which was a rape and attempted murder. An ex-boyfriend raped um this uh his girl his girlfriend um she survived that. He came back a week later and shot her several times. She's been in hiding since 2021. We know who the suspect is.

[00:18:33]We have his last known address. We have ID numbers. We have relatives. But we simply cannot get the police to go and do their jobs, to go and trace this man.

[00:18:40]Um to ensure not only that there's justice for her, but that society is safer uh from somebody who does this kind of um you know, violence against women. So we would just like to see the police act. We will continue to put our pressure and engage with the acting national commissioner.

[00:18:57]>> Indeed. Uh well, it seems we have run out of time. Thank you so much, Jeremy.

[00:19:00]and uh Barry for your insight into this issue which looks at the praise for these arrests but also criticisms which require that these arrests also give be given the same resources as the cold cases that have been sitting stagnant for some time now. Many views have been shared on these particular arrests affecting the Madanga Commission. But let's hear from our viewers. Is this justice or are these arrests merely for show?

[00:19:29]on my opinion I really think that even though like there's um some progress in arresting people we are not yet sure that these arrests are very valid and then I can say it's 50/50 instead of saying okay we can trust them and follow them so that everything that is corrupted in the in this country can be removed we can just say okay what if we we follow them and then they are part of the corruption as well so it's not safe for us to say okay let's just follow them without knowing the final result here of what is going on. Uh is what they are telling us really the truth or is just something that they are trying to buy uh our trust from us so that we can follow them and then go against the corruption.

[00:20:10]>> K Mala is going to turn into a state witness or something. I think I saw the discussions around that and I feel like that's unfair given that like okay I don't know if his case has been like is ongoing or what but like I feel like he should like you know um take account of his crimes and stuff. So like him turning into a state witness I feel like that is unfair for all the wrong that is done so far. say 50/50 because one part is showing that the justice system of the Republic of South Africa is improving but on the other one wonders whether those arrest whether those people will go into court or not. So yeah it's kind of 50/50.

[00:20:53]>> Now the Madanga Commission remains on recess over the next week. This is to allow the probe to complete its second interim report which will be handed over to President Stoaposa on Friday the 29th of May. Join us next week as we unpack and connect the dots on what that report may entail.