ANALYSIS | Madlanga Commission: Significant Progress, but still Too Many Gaps

The Madlanga Commission has received explosive evidence detailing criminal infiltration in the Justice, Crime Prevention and Security (JCPS) cluster, verifying some of the claims made by Lt. Gen. Nhlanhla Mkwanazi in July 2025.

However, despite these revelations, the list of key witnesses refusing to testify is ever growing; while others, such as Ze Nxumalo, Katiso Molefe, Benjani Chauke, Hangwane Maumela and Steve Motsumi, whose alleged criminal networks link directly to the late Jotham Msibi, a central underworld Don, with further ties allegedly linked to high-ranking politicians, are clearly “protected” as the Commission appears reluctant to test their version. 

The result is that these figures, who are alleged to be central to the explosive allegations of criminality and abuse, remain hidden from scrutiny, alongside prominent politicians and senior officials in the NPA and IDAC who have spectacularly absconded from accountability following revelations made in testimony before the Madlanga and Nkabinde Commissions. 

This is the very pitfall that could tarnish the Commission’s reputation, bring scrutiny to its incomplete picture and fan lingering questions about accountability.

President Ramaphosa established the Madlanga Commission in July 2025 with a Terms of Reference to “investigate and report on the veracity, scope and extent of the allegations made by Lt. Gen. Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi during his 6 July 2025 press briefing, with regard to the infiltration of law enforcement, intelligence and associated institutions within the JCPS, by criminal syndicates”.  

In this series of articles, we will do a scorecard review of the efficacy and/or complicity of the Madlanga Commission that, on the one hand, has uncovered startling evidence of criminal capture rot and abuse within the JCPS cluster to favour criminal networks, abuse state funds and destabilise the effective functioning of the JCPS cluster; whilst on the other hand, whispers linger about the Commission’s shielding of “prominent” cartel players from scrutiny.

A review of the Commission’s scorecard must therefore cast a critical eye on each of the Commission’s investigation streams tasked with investigating the matters that have arisen in the course of the testimonies led. 

More pertinently, the review will zoom its lens on the uncomfortable details pointing to the “protected ones” and their criminal networks extending to senior officials and politicians within the state machinery, but who remain suspiciously off the Madlanga Commission’s radar, as it is alleged, and/or allowed to dribble the Commission with Stalingrad stratagems despite damning information at the disposal of the Commission.

What the Commission got right and wrong

It is agreed that the Madlanga Commission has, in terms of its mandate, been able to confirm the veracity of allegations spilling out of Lt. Gen. Nhlanhla Mkwanazi’s explosive “can of worms” press briefing of July 2025. 

The cross-referencing by the Commission of testimonies led before Parliament’s Ad Hoc Committee and issues found in the public domain has yielded much fruit, but it has also become the poisoned chalice that sounds the alarm over “prominent cartel players” and political bigwigs who seem to enjoy shielding themselves from the Commission’s scrutiny. In fact, just this week it was reported that some of these individuals have been advised to “leave the country” to evade scrutiny. A damning expose if found to have merit!  

The Commission has laid bare the extent to which senior SAPS officials have become embedded in criminal syndicates, casting their reach beyond the JCPS cluster and highlighting the manipulation of SAPS investigations and tender processes, especially the SAPS Medicare24 tender, extortion and contract killings, and the disbandment of the PKTT investigation teams. 

More shockingly, it revealed explosive evidence demonstrating the criminal capture and abuse of IPID and NPA through IDAC, alongside SAPS, at the behest of criminal masterminds such as the notorious Paul O’ Sullivan, together with Sarah Jane Trent and his cohorts.

The Commission exposed Minister Senzo Mchunu, Shamila Batoyi, Andrea Johnson, Robert McBride, Shadrack Sibiya’s links to O’Sullivan and Chauke, while other common purpose criminal networks link Gen. Lesetja Sonono, Lt. Gen. Feroz Khan and others to allegations of drug smuggling cartels involving Cat Matlala who links back to Beki Cele; allegations of large scale tender fraud linked to Katiso Molefe, Ze Nxumalo, Sulleiman Carrim, Hangwane Maumela and others; while these allegations and more tie back to Benjani Chauke, and late Don, Jotham Msibi and high-ranking politicians.

The uncomfortable question that arises is why the Madlanga Commission’s barometer of scrutiny is shying away from probing allegations of criminal network links higher up the government food chain and within the underworld?

Is the discomfort to bring the entire house of cards down, precisely because of those protected? The devastating cost that the country has had to bear in order to allow these abusive criminal cartels to flourish cannot be appeased with a few scapegoated scalps the likes of Sibiya, Jonson, Khan and Batoyi. There can be no rotten holy cows allowed to survive this surgical dissection required of the Commission. 

Is this the reason why the Commission is not disclosing the full evidence it has at its disposal in respect of the late Don Jotham Msibi? When it is clear from evidence led thus far that Msibi was central to an extensive high-profile web of corruption and crime. 

And his interface with alleged high-profile politicians, industry players, high-level government officials (who are all very much alive) and journalists who frequented the Msibi farm, aligned to some of these stratagems, remaining in the hands of the Commission undisclosed. Msibi’s death cannot become the convenient endpoint of an investigation into relationships involving individuals who are alive.

Our challenge to the Commission is therefore, “Follow the networks, not only the individuals in the Commission’s quest to find the truth.” 

It will serve the Commission well to remember that justice should not shield political proximity, institutional seniority or the ability to evade questioning. The cost at which it comes- history has shown time and time again- is just too high, and it will inevitably leave blood on the hands of those at the head of the Commission’s table. 

History will not forget the devastating human cost of corruption that resulted in the assassination of the courageous whistleblower, Babita Dekoran, Colonel Charl Kinnear, witness D, on the one hand; and the weaponizing of the NPA and IDAC on the other hand to pursue malicious persecutions and smear campaigns directed at Gen. Masemola, Lt. Gen. Mkwanazi, Gen. Khumalo, Brig Mokwele and others. This should serve as a stark reminder of the consequences that will remain commonplace should the status quo of criminal networks remain.

A way forward

The devastating effect of fraud and corruption on communities across the country and the lives of the most vulnerable in society is the singular reason why the Madlanga Commission cannot bow to the pressure and compromise wielded by those perceived to be “protected” from scrutiny and accountability. 

It is therefore imperative that the Madlanga Commission ensure that it presents the full picture of the rot at play without shielding holy cows, to enable an appropriate response plan. Failing which, the Madlanga Commission risks becoming Zondo 2.0; obsessed with optics and becoming complicit in perpetuating the destruction of the country at the hands of the same actors.

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