Africa-Press – Namibia. After nine days of testimony at the Madlanga Commission into police corruption, it is becoming increasingly clear that sidelined Police Minister Senzo Mchunu has some difficult questions to answer.
Less than 24 hours after Police Minister Senzo Mchunu gave the order to disband the Political Killings Task Team (PKTT), on 31 December 2024, a civilian businessman from North West knew about it.
This was despite the fact that there does not appear to have been any public statement made about it at the time.
Brown Mogotsi. (Photo: TRUTH AND SOLIDARITY MOVEMENT / @TruthMovemen / X)
One day later, businessman Brown Mogotsi was in possession of the letter signed by Mchunu ordering the disbanding. And even more curiously, he was also aware of accurate details around the fate of the ongoing investigations, which could only have come from the very top ranks of police.
“As we speak, they are bringing all the dockets to [deputy police commissioner Shadrack] Sibiya,” Mogotsi told alleged criminal kingpin Vusimuzi Matlala via WhatsApp. We now know that he was correct.
For the first time since the Madlanga Commission began to sit, the commission is going through hard evidence – in the form of communications obtained from Matlala’s cellphones after he was arrested in May this year.
And thus far, they appear to be substantiating the sometimes outlandish-seeming claims made to the commission previously by the likes of KwaZulu-Natal police commissioner Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi and national police commissioner Fannie Masemola.
Vusimuzi ‘Cat’ Matlala appears at Alexandra Magistrate’s Court. (Photo by Gallo Images/Sharon Seretlo)
Communications would have been vetted
Commission secretary Jeremy Michaels told Daily Maverick on Tuesday that the commission couldn’t give details as to the due diligence process its investigators had used to verify the authenticity of the messages, but it is likely to have been thorough.
Evidence leader Adila Hassan has several times referenced a dossier of accompanying evidence given to commissioners in the way of metadata obtained from the WhatsApps, for instance.
On the basis of the WhatsApps introduced to the commission by sidelined crime intelligence head Dumisani Khumalo on Tuesday, it would appear virtually unequivocal that the shadowy Brown Mogotsi, who also served as an ANC fixer of sorts, had access to information from the very top echelon of police that he was feeding to alleged criminal Matlala.
Even classified information often leaks. The question is, however, who was leaking to Mogotsi?
Mogotsi was bent on presenting himself to Matlala as someone with access to Police Minister Senzo Mchunu. He sent Matlala screenshots of interactions with someone saved on his phone under the number “Senzo Mchunu”, which include records of Mogotsi placing WhatsApp calls to Mchunu in the week before the PKTT’s disbandment was announced by Mchunu.
If the commission’s investigators have established that these screenshots are legitimate reflections of communication with the real Senzo Mchunu, the messages still have not shown evidence of clear criminal conduct by Mchunu.
Senzo Mchunu. (Photo: Phando Jikelo / RSA Parliament)
But at the very least, they would establish that Mchunu was in direct contact with a man who was simultaneously soliciting funds from an alleged criminal at the heart of a sprawling cartel.
Why would Mchunu be entertaining this company at all, as a police minister who needed to demonstrate the highest levels of personal probity?
It does not help Mchunu’s cause that he initially denied knowing Mogotsi at all.
Appearing before Parliament in March, he said: “I do not know this person.”
Almost four months later, Mchunu would release a statement admitting that he did, in fact, know Mogotsi – but as a “comrade” rather than an “associate”, an exceedingly opaque distinction.
Dumisani Khumalo at the Madlanga Commission Of Inquiry on Day 9 at Brigitte Mabandla Judicial College on September 30, 2025 in Pretoria. (Photo: Gallo Images / Frennie Shivambu)
Matlala believed he was assisting the minister
Matlala, for his part – and again, only on the basis of the WhatsApps presented – appears to have believed that he had some form of association with Mchunu through Mogotsi.
“This won’t change my contribution towards the minister though, I made a conscious decision and I’m not backing down, whatever help the minister needs from my side I’ll be happy to assist,” read a message sent by Matlala to Mogotsi on 31 December 2024 – the day of the PKTT disbanding.
When Mchunu orders the cancellation of a SAPS contract awarded to Matlala’s Medicare company after a News24 report on the contract, Matlala threatens Mogotsi that he is going to sing like a canary in court.
“This is the time every [one] must show his side, if the minister or officials are involved,” says Mogotsi, in response to Matlala threatening court action.
“But you know he’s involved, I told you from day one,” Matlala fires back.
Adila Hassim SC at the Madlanga Commission Of Inquiry on Day 9 at Brigitte Mabandla Judicial College on September 30, 2025 in Pretoria. (Photo: Gallo Images / Frennie Shivambu)
Who’s fooling who?
Based on Khumalo’s evidence, it seems likely that Matlala had other close connections within the criminal justice sector.
Khumalo suggested on Tuesday that the chats between Matlala and Mogotsi indicated that Matlala also had a “special relationship” with General Feroz Khan, the head of counterintelligence and security at Crime Intelligence. Khumalo indicated that he would be giving additional evidence about this in camera, out of the public eye.
This is an additionally shocking claim. As Daily Maverick’s Caryn Dolley noted on our live blog, it would mean that “an attempted murder accused and an individual he has alleged is a key figure in a drug cartel”, Matlala, is close to one of the country’s most senior cops.
Any way you slice it, what is emerging from the commission should deeply concern us all – even if, after years of corruption allegations, it may not surprise us.
Mchunu may still appear before the commission and deliver self-exonerating testimony. He could claim that communications with Mogotsi were actually carried out by his chief of staff, Cedrick Nkabinde, who has also been referenced by Mogotsi in a knowing way. He could allege that Mogotsi was simply stringing along Matlala for money by claiming a relationship with Mchunu that didn’t exist. He could deliver the old chestnut that his phone was “hacked”.
But as things stand, there are a number of urgent questions that the South African public deserves answers to from Mchunu.
Why was he seemingly in contact with a shady guy from the North West who had access to privileged police information?
Why did he initially deny knowing Brown Mogotsi?
Did he receive any money or other support, for him personally or his constituents, from Vusimuzi Matlala?
And most critically, the question that underpins the entire commission: Did he disband the PKTT at the behest of a criminal cartel? DM
For More News And Analysis About Namibia Follow Africa-Press
