{"id":90290,"date":"2025-09-25T18:27:43","date_gmt":"2025-09-25T18:27:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/empd-deputy-chief-mkhwanazi-granted-special-leave"},"modified":"2025-09-25T18:59:12","modified_gmt":"2025-09-25T18:59:12","slug":"empd-deputy-chief-mkhwanazi-granted-special-leave","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/empd-deputy-chief-mkhwanazi-granted-special-leave","title":{"rendered":"EMPD Deputy Chief Mkhwanazi Granted Special Leave"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600\"><strong>Africa-Press &#8211; South-Africa. <\/strong><\/span>Ekurhuleni Metro Police Deputy Chief Julius Mkhwanazi is officially on special leave following allegations that he\u2019s linked to suspected underworld figure Vusimuzi \u201cCat\u201d Matlala.<\/p>\n<p>The metro has confirmed that Mkhwanazi personally applied for the leave, which has now been granted.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, the city council is currently meeting to decide whether the EMPD top cop should be suspended.<\/p>\n<p><b>ALSO READ:<\/b><\/p>\n<p>\u2022 Calls for City of Ekurhuleni to launch forensic probe into EMPD&#8217;s Mkhwanazi for his alleged links to Matlala<\/p>\n<p>\u2022 Motion tabled for EMPD deputy chief&#8217;s suspension over alleged links to Vusimuzi &#8216;Cat&#8217; Matlala<\/p>\n<p>Last week, KwaZulu-Natal Police Commissioner Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi dropped his name before the Madlanga Commission of Inquiry, accusing him of granting undue favours to Matlala.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s been a year since EWN reported that EMPD Deputy Chief Julius Mkhwanazi allegedly handed over blue lights to attempted murder-accused Matlala.<\/p>\n<p>Despite police watchdog IPID recommending disciplinary action against him, Mkhwanazi was instead promoted to acting head of the EMPD.<\/p>\n<p>It was only after he was implicated at the Madlanga Commission of Inquiry that the city moved to act.<\/p>\n<p>Ekurhuleni spokesperson, Phakamile Mbengashe, confirmed that Mkhwanazi was now on special leave.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;He made the application on Tuesday and that special leave was approved. As to how long, I don\u2019t have that information. The process of applying for leave is a matter between an employee and their employer.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The Ekurhuleni city council will decide on Thursday whether Mkhwanazi should be suspended.<\/p>\n<p><strong>For More News And Analysis About <span style=\"color: #ff6600\">South-Africa<\/span> Follow <span style=\"color: #ff6600\">Africa-Press<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Africa-Press &#8211; South-Africa. Ekurhuleni Metro Police Deputy Chief Julius Mkhwanazi is officially on special leave following allegations that he\u2019s linked to suspected underworld figure Vusimuzi \u201cCat\u201d Matlala. The metro has confirmed that Mkhwanazi personally applied for the leave, which has now been granted. Meanwhile, the city council is currently meeting to decide whether the EMPD [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":90289,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,12],"tags":[275],"class_list":["post-90290","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-policy","tag-south-africa-2"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.1 (Yoast SEO v27.0) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>EMPD Deputy Chief Mkhwanazi Granted Special Leave - South Africa<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Ekurhuleni Metro Police Deputy Chief Julius Mkhwanazi is officially on special leave following allegations that he\u2019s lin ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/empd-deputy-chief-mkhwanazi-granted-special-leave\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"EMPD Deputy Chief Mkhwanazi Granted Special Leave\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Ekurhuleni Metro Police Deputy Chief Julius Mkhwanazi is officially on special leave following allegations that he\u2019s lin ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/empd-deputy-chief-mkhwanazi-granted-special-leave\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"South Africa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-09-25T18:27:43+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-09-25T18:59:12+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2025\/09\/sm_1758813734.735276.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"630\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/empd-deputy-chief-mkhwanazi-granted-special-leave#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/empd-deputy-chief-mkhwanazi-granted-special-leave\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"EMPD Deputy Chief Mkhwanazi Granted Special Leave\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-09-25T18:27:43+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-09-25T18:59:12+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/empd-deputy-chief-mkhwanazi-granted-special-leave\"},\"wordCount\":260,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/empd-deputy-chief-mkhwanazi-granted-special-leave#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2025\/09\/sm_1758813734.735276.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"South-Africa\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"policy\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/empd-deputy-chief-mkhwanazi-granted-special-leave#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/empd-deputy-chief-mkhwanazi-granted-special-leave\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/empd-deputy-chief-mkhwanazi-granted-special-leave\",\"name\":\"EMPD Deputy Chief Mkhwanazi Granted Special Leave - 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