In Part Three of the Russian Doll investigation, Open Secrets described a series of deeply disturbing events, including alleged torture and murder, implicating Special Forces members assisted by members of the Military Police and Defence Intelligence.

Open Secrets reported that these officials had been instructed to recover 18 stolen SANDF-issue R4 rifles and a number of pistols following a much-publicised burglary at an army engineering base outside Pretoria in late 2019.

Rear Admiral Mokgadi Maphoto, the chief of the Military Police, assembled a task team which included Major Doris Netshanzhe, then acting Military Police commander at the sprawling Thaba Tshwane base south of Pretoria.

Netshanzhe, together with a Special Forces member we were able to identify as Col Pinny Sunnybooi Wambi, were named by Open Secrets sources as ringleaders present at Thaba Tshwane in early February 2020 when an individual suspected to have knowledge of the stolen weapons was tortured and died.

Wambi and other Special Forces members were the subjects of a separate Hawks investigation into the abduction of an alleged Islamic State financier, Abdella Abadiga, from a Midrand mall late last year. While on their trail in August this year, the lead Hawks investigator in that matter, Lieutenant-Colonel Frans Mathipa, was assassinated. Court papers we obtained showed that the military resisted cooperating with Mathipa before his death.

We now turn to further allegations of criminality within the SANDF.

Pule Nkomo – torture survivor

Pule Nkomo is a survivor. The 39-year-old has a lengthy association with state intelligence structures in South Africa dating back more than a decade. Nkomo is frank about feeling tainted by the murky world of state spookery under successive Zuma administrations. However, he turned his back on the State Security Agency in 2019. In his words, he was “out … I have seen enough”.

Working closely with Nkomo we have pieced together details of his ordeal over six days between 21 and 26 March 2020. Nkomo describes being tortured by masked soldiers, whom he suspects were from Special Forces, while detained at Thaba Tshwane military base, and his life being threatened repeatedly after his release.

He tells of being subjected to confinement, water torture, simulated suffocation with a plastic bag and deprived of basic sanitation and necessities. Medical records show him being admitted to hospital during the ordeal, suffering convulsions brought on, he says, by a blow to the head.

Nkomo bears the physical scars, including impaired vision. His experience is not dissimilar to the standard operating procedure of security forces within the apartheid regime.

Pule Nkomo – a photograph displaying cuts and bruises following his torture. Images of his face not included to protect his identity (Photo: Supplied)

Pule Nkomo – a photograph displaying cuts and bruises following his torture. Images of his face not included to protect his identity (Photo: Supplied)

According to Nkomo, at least two SANDF generals were present and ordered him to be assaulted. They include Lieutenant-General Lawrence Mbatha, since promoted to chief of the South African Army, and Maphoto, the head of the Military Police. By Nkomo’s account, this was no rogue operation. On the contrary, it was an operation directed by SANDF top brass.

Nkomo fears for his life. In March, he filed a civil claim against the SANDF seeking damages for the physical and psychological injuries from which he says he still suffers. In May, the defendants — the minister of defence, the secretary of defence, the chief of the SANDF and the military ombud — notified Nkomo of their intention to defend in the matter. Their answering plea, which is simply a bald denial of the events, was filed thereafter. But something far more sinister occurred that month. Nkomo shows a white envelope marked “Pule” which he says he found in his home. Its content was a single bullet.

The bullet sent to Pule Nkomo. (Photo: Supplied)

The evidence

Nkomo provided Open Secrets with the particulars of his legal claim. In addition, he provided Open Secrets with a sworn affidavit in October. With Nkomo’s assistance, we have also reviewed his medical record for the period he was hospitalised during his ordeal in March 2020.

We have also accessed the subsequent medico-legal examination (commonly referred to as a J88 form) conducted by his healthcare practitioner in April 2020. This reaches a conclusion that Nkomo suffered an “apparent assault” and that the blackouts he is experiencing “could be because of a blow to the head”.

We have also attempted to verify as many of the allegations Nkomo made as possible. Detailed questions were sent to the parties implicated. Should we receive any comment during the week following publication we undertake to append it to this article.

What follows is the story of Nkomo’s ordeal. But for contextual information or where we indicate otherwise, the story is as averred by him.

Day 1: 21 March 2020 

‘These are my boys, they will mess you up’

In early 2020, Nkomo was working as an informant for SAPS National Crime Intelligence. He received a call from Mbatha on 20 March 2020 asking for information on a man known to both of them who, Mbatha claimed, was a “suspect in the theft of firearms from Simon’s Town Naval Base”.

Mbatha was, at the time, the general officer commanding the SANDF Training Command and would be appointed chief of the South African Army a few weeks later. Mbatha made it clear that Nkomo would need to travel to Pretoria to assist with the investigation. Nkomo agreed to this and, on 21 March, drove to Pretoria where he was met by a “Major lady” outside a Pick n Pay outlet downtown.

Nkomo did not know her name at the time but has since identified her as Doris Netshanzhe when presented with five photographs of people who fitted a similar age, gender and race profile. This is the same Major Netshanzhe, subsequently promoted, who featured in Part Three of our Russian Doll investigation.

Lieutenant-Colonel Major Doris Netshanzhe. (Photo: Supplied)

Netshanzhe drove Nkomo to the Thaba Tshwane military base. He said they were tailed by five vehicles including luxury German cars. Upon their arrival, he was asked to sit in an office where he was soon joined by military officials. He knew the identities of the two highest-ranking officials: General Mbatha, who had summoned him to the base, and Rear Admiral Maphoto, the head of the Military Police.

Two other men were present whom he knew only as Colonel Mokoena (also referred to as G4) and “Kagiso”. After Nkomo’s belongings, which included his phone, watch and wallet, were taken from him, Mbatha told him the real reason he had been brought to the base was because there was a “mandate from above” that he should frame senior politicians within the ANC as being “the masterminds behind the theft” of the weapons from Simon’s Town.

Whether they had really wanted to frame politicians, or if it was a ruse to lull Nkomo into revealing what they thought he might know about the Simon’s Town weapons theft, is not clear.

Lieutenant-General Lawrence Khulekani Mbatha, Chief of the SA Army. (Photo: Wikipedia)

Rear Admiral Mokgadi Maphoto, Provost Marshal General of the SANDF. (Photo: Supplied)

Nkomo took the request at face value and said he wanted nothing to do with it. “I said I did not want to be involved. I said I was ‘out’. Mbatha said I was still an informer with [National Crime Intelligence] and therefore knew how things operated. I repeated that I did not want to be involved.”

Nkomo was left alone in the office. Officials soon returned, followed by about eight men in balaclavas. Netshanzhe said, “These are my boys, they will mess you up.” Mbatha returned at regular intervals insisting Nkomo undertake the operation to frame the politicians.

“When I refused, I was assaulted by the men in balaclavas. This pattern repeated itself and I recall Mokoena telling me to do the job. Assaults would follow when I was silent or refused.”

That night, Nkomo was handcuffed to a chair without water or food. When he asked to go to the bathroom, the duty officer told him to walk, chair and all. “I tried to do this and as I walked towards the bathroom area he kicked the back of the chair. I fell over and urinated on myself.”

On the same night, the duty officer pointed a gun at him and addressing him with the racist K-word said that “he could easily just take me to Bosman train station [in downtown Pretoria], shoot me and say that I was trying to escape.” Nkomo added, “The other officers heard this and laughed.”

Day 2: 22 March 2020

‘Major, tell your boys to squeeze his balls’

The next morning Nkomo was taken back to the “interrogation office”. Netshanzhe entered briefly before several men wearing balaclavas came into the office. Nkomo did not recognise them from the day before and “their rifles were modified according to the Special Forces requirements”. (Open Secrets has not ascertained whether there is indeed a particular modification attributable to Special Forces, although one former member told us that they used to personalise their weapons, while regular troops would not.)

The men in the balaclavas told Nkomo that he was “taking them for granted, taking them for shit”. They asked where the firearms were.

It would seem that the new group of interrogators were no longer assaulting Nkomo to ensure that he acceded to the instruction to frame senior politicians. Rather, they seemed to believe that he had stolen the firearms at Simon’s Town and they were there to extract information from him.

“Colonel Mokoena was present and dialled Mbatha on WhatsApp video. I heard Mbatha say to me, ‘Is your memory not yet refreshed?’ I did not respond. He said, ‘I am talking to you.’ Again I did not respond. Then he addressed the major [Netshanzhe] and said, ‘Major, tell your boys to squeeze his balls.’ ”

Nkomo recalls Mbatha repeating the same instruction during the course of the days that followed. Immediately thereafter, Nkomo recalls “being slapped and a rifle butt hitting me in the chest. I believe I was hit on the back of the head whereafter I lost consciousness.”

That evening Nkomo was carried into Kalafong Hospital, some 10km from Thaba Tshwane base, by SANDF members. He recalls very little of what happened that evening. However, Nkomo obtained his medical records from Kalafong. They show an entry at 6.30pm by an attending medical officer, which states: “A 36 year old man. He came in pushed on a stretcher by military paramedics. He presents with convulsions.” The next entry records that 45 minutes later Nkomo “had a fit … that lasted for quite long”.

The hospital records describe Nkomo as a “known epileptic” and state that medication was administered to treat his epilepsy. However, Nkomo is emphatic that he has no history of epilepsy. This suggests that the SANDF officials used it as a ruse to explain the reason for his condition.

Day 3: 23 March 2020

‘I thought I was going to die’

According to Nkomo, “I realised I was being discharged when one of the nurses was removing the drip from my arm. He said to me that I had had an epileptic seizure because I had defaulted on my medication… He said that hospital staff were told by the ‘army lady’ that I had defaulted on my medication and, as a result, I had fainted while they were questioning me and that I was a suspect. As much as I wanted to say something I was in pain, confused and dizzy.”

Nkomo was discharged back into the SANDF’s care and taken back to Thaba Tshwane, where again he experienced repeated and prolonged assault and torture. The top brass appeared again, including Mbatha and Maphoto. Netshanzhe and Mokoena were again in attendance. The same group of masked men carrying modified rifles questioned Nkomo about the weapons stolen from Simon’s Town. “I kept quiet and they assaulted me continuously. General Mbatha said at some point, ‘Squeeze his balls’, and left.”

The masked men, in the presence of Mokoena and Netshanzhe, continued the assault and torture. “I was beaten with fists and rifles. I was kicked. At one point my head was put into a bucket of water and I felt like I was drowning. They kicked me while I lay on the floor.  They poured water over my head from a 2-litre Coke bottle so that I couldn’t breathe. Someone put a black refuse back over my head so that I could not breathe. I remember feeling numb, nothing, and I thought I was going to die.”

Not even a military chaplain came to Nkomo’s rescue. A man known to him from an earlier encounter, SANDF Chaplain Mike Nomtoto, was present and said things would be easier for him if he told his torturers where he had stashed the stolen weapons.

Chaplain Mike Nomtoto (Photo: Facebook)

At this point Nkomo created a ruse. “I decided to simply say anything to get them to stop the assault. I told the officials that the firearms were at my sister’s house… It was my intention to lead the officials to a family member so it would be apparent what was happening to me.” Nkomo was placed in Netshanzhe’s car and, tailed by a convoy, driven to his sister’s home.

Open Secrets has spoken to Nkomo’s sister, who has asked not to be named. She corroborated his account of the brief 10 or 15 minutes when Nkomo and his captors were at her premises. She describes about 10 unmarked cars arriving at her house. She said Nkomo’s head was swollen in two places and she was very scared and crying throughout the ordeal, worried that someone was going to kill her brother. She said army officials told her they were looking for weapons stolen in December 2019. The soldiers were, according to her, on high alert. “When he went to the bathroom they even stood outside the window in case he tried to escape.”

She did not have time to speak with Nkomo about what was going on, except when he asked for a jersey and some medication for blood pressure and said in South Sotho, “My sister, if anything happens to me, you must know that I love you.” The soldiers left empty-handed, taking her brother with them.

What followed was a series of prolonged assaults during a long drive on Gauteng highways. At one point, Nkomo was bundled into a car boot. The convoy then stopped and he was placed on the back seat of the car between two masked men as they approached the Grasmere toll gate and later a police roadblock. Nkomo says he was assaulted throughout and that the masked men took off their balaclavas when they approached the tollgate, putting his head between his legs so that he could not see their faces. “Squeeze your own balls,” they said.

Day 4 to Day 6: 24 to 26 March 2020

Nkomo says his recollection of the events over the next few days is patchy. He recalls waking up at some stage in the office with Netshanzhe present and hearing a duty officer complain to her that “they had left an unconscious guy in the office and that they had to record it in the incidents register”.

He also recalls that from the room in which he was interrogated at Thaba Tshwane, he heard a man and a woman screaming nearby on separate occasions. He believes that they too were being tortured. The woman, who was speaking Pedi in a Pretoria dialect, said, “It wasn’t me, it wasn’t me, it was my supervisor.”

On his last day in custody — 26 March 2020 — Nkomo was introduced to someone called William Hilt from National Crime Intelligence (NCI).

“He told me that he had sorted everything out for me with the NCI national office, General [Peter] Jacobs, and that I should take my belongings and return home. I believe he thought that I had been wrongly accused of the firearms theft.”

Open Secrets contacted General Peter Jacobs, who now heads the SA Police Service’s Inspectorate Division and he declined to comment.

On the same day, South Africa was preparing for one of the harshest Covid lockdown regimes in the world — a day Nkomo remembers well — he was bought a bus ticket by Hilt, which he promptly sold for petrol money. He collected his private car and drove towards Bloemfontein. Nkomo did not make it very far. He was unable to focus or see clearly and called a cousin to meet him on the highway and drive him back to Bloemfontein. We were unable to speak to the cousin as Nkomo says he has since died.

In mid-April 2020, Nkomo received threatening phone calls. He also received “pastoral” advice from Chaplain Nomtoto, saying: “I must stop talking about what had happened or I will end up arrested or dead.”

November 2023

Pule Nkomo is currently in hiding. He fears for his safety. In the weeks before this article was published, he says, close relatives were intimidated by men in flashy cars parked outside their modest house. They entered the yard possibly looking for Nkomo. The family members are now also in hiding.

Nkomo carries the scars of the alleged torture at the hands of the SANDF. He says his one eye sometimes bleeds heavily.

“I also got tremors in my hands. This means I am not able to earn an income. I have nightmares and flashbacks where I feel the sensation again of feeling like I was going to die. I have constant headaches. It is like living in hell.”

None of the implicated officials have been charged criminally or otherwise.

Open Secrets commentary

Pule Nkomo’s tale suggests that alleged criminal elements within the SANDF operate much like the torture squads that were commonplace during apartheid. Torture and abuse, it seems, have become a weapon for some elements within the SANDF — extending to the highest-ranking officials.

It would be foolish to imagine that these alleged incidents of violence, for which nobody has been held to account, are the isolated actions of a “rogue unit”. When the different strands of our Russian Doll investigation are taken together — the Abadiga abduction; the assassination of the Hawks investigating officer into that abduction; the alleged torture and murder at Thaba Tshwane — it seems a new practice is evolving within the ranks of the military and it will take an intervention by the country’s very top politicians to address this in any meaningful way.

If they fail, it is possibly only a matter of time before the men with guns turn their barrels towards politicians, activists, journalists and members of the public. DM

Note

Detailed questions were sent to the following parties named in this article, none of whom had responded by the time of publication. Should a response be forthcoming in the next few days, it will be appended to this article.

• Lieutenant-General Lawrence Khulekani Mbatha, chief of the SA Army;
• Rear Admiral Mokgadi Maphoto, Provost Marshal General of the SANDF (chief of Military Police);
• Siphiwe Dlamini, spokesperson for the SANDF/Department of Defence;
• Lieutenant-Colonel Doris Phindani Netshanzhe, Military Police; and
• SANDF Chaplain Mike Nomtoto.

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