{"id":95609,"date":"2026-02-10T16:15:29","date_gmt":"2026-02-10T16:15:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/suspended-ekurhuleni-legal-head-denies-corruption-advice"},"modified":"2026-02-10T16:32:45","modified_gmt":"2026-02-10T16:32:45","slug":"suspended-ekurhuleni-legal-head-denies-corruption-advice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/suspended-ekurhuleni-legal-head-denies-corruption-advice","title":{"rendered":"Suspended Ekurhuleni Legal Head Denies Corruption Advice"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600\"><strong>Africa-Press &#8211; South-Africa. <\/strong><\/span>Ekurhuleni\u2019s suspended Head of Legal, Kemi Behari, is accused of being part of a clique of senior municipal officials who protected EMPD\u2019s Deputy Chief, Julius Mkhwanazi, from accountability.<\/p>\n<p>Ekurhuleni\u2019s suspended Head of Legal, Kemi Behari, says he never advised the City Manager to take disciplinary action against a senior Metro Police officer accused of fraud and corruption.<\/p>\n<p>In 2023, the Independent Police Investigative Directorate (IPID) recommended that disciplinary action be taken against EMPD\u2019s Deputy Chief, Julius Mkhwanazi, for entering the police department into an irregular contract with a private security company linked to suspected crime boss Vusimuzi &#8220;Cat&#8221; Matlala.<\/p>\n<p>Mkhwanazi arranged for blue lights to be fitted into the cars of Cat VIP Protection Services.<\/p>\n<p>Ekurhuleni\u2019s suspended Head of Legal, Kemi Behari, is accused of being part of a clique of senior municipal officials who protected EMPD\u2019s Deputy Chief, Julius Mkhwanazi, from accountability.<\/p>\n<p>When Ekurhuleni\u2019s former City Manager, Imogen Mashazi, appeared before the Madlanga Commission last year, she said she was advised by the municipality\u2019s legal department that IPID\u2019s charges against Mkhwanazi were not sustainable.<\/p>\n<p>Behari, who heads up the legal department, was grilled by Commissioner Sandile Khumalo on this.<\/p>\n<p>SK: &#8220;Is that what you told the CM, that the charges are not sustainable?&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>KB: &#8220;We believed the charges were not sustainable. Yes, that\u2019s correct.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>SK: &#8220;So then how can you expect the CM to proceed to charge Julius Mkhwanazi if you yourself [thought] that the charges are not sustainable?&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>KB: &#8220;Because of the process we are still embarking to clarify.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Despite wanting clarification on certain matters in Mkhwanazi\u2019s case, Behari told the Commission he never followed up with IPID.<\/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\u2019s suspended Head of Legal, Kemi Behari, is accused of being part of a clique of senior municipal officials who protected EMPD\u2019s Deputy Chief, Julius Mkhwanazi, from accountability. Ekurhuleni\u2019s suspended Head of Legal, Kemi Behari, says he never advised the City Manager to take disciplinary action against a senior Metro Police officer [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":95608,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,12],"tags":[275],"class_list":["post-95609","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>Suspended Ekurhuleni Legal Head Denies Corruption Advice - South Africa<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Ekurhuleni\u2019s suspended Head of Legal, Kemi Behari, is accused of being part of a clique of senior municipal officials wh ...\" \/>\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\/suspended-ekurhuleni-legal-head-denies-corruption-advice\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Suspended Ekurhuleni Legal Head Denies Corruption Advice\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Ekurhuleni\u2019s suspended Head of Legal, Kemi Behari, is accused of being part of a clique of senior municipal officials wh ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/suspended-ekurhuleni-legal-head-denies-corruption-advice\" \/>\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=\"2026-02-10T16:15:29+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-02-10T16:32:45+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2026\/02\/sm_1770728536.230681.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1152\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"648\" \/>\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=\"2 minutes\" \/>\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\/suspended-ekurhuleni-legal-head-denies-corruption-advice#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/suspended-ekurhuleni-legal-head-denies-corruption-advice\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Suspended Ekurhuleni Legal Head Denies Corruption Advice\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-02-10T16:15:29+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-02-10T16:32:45+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/suspended-ekurhuleni-legal-head-denies-corruption-advice\"},\"wordCount\":299,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/suspended-ekurhuleni-legal-head-denies-corruption-advice#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2026\/02\/sm_1770728536.230681.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\/suspended-ekurhuleni-legal-head-denies-corruption-advice#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/suspended-ekurhuleni-legal-head-denies-corruption-advice\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/suspended-ekurhuleni-legal-head-denies-corruption-advice\",\"name\":\"Suspended Ekurhuleni Legal Head Denies Corruption Advice - 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