Mkhwanazi’s smoking guns: How two firearms could expose SA’s colluding cops, a drug cartel and high-profile murders

An AK-47, a pistol and a deadly attempt to cover up Transnet tender corruption. This is what may lead to arrests for the shootings of several high-profile artists in Gauteng over roughly four years, and the exposure of alleged top-tier state involvement in deep-rooted organised crime in South Africa.

Certain police officers say the AK-47 and the pistol are linked to the April 2024 killing in Vereeniging of engineer Armand Swart, who was shot after the company he worked for unearthed corruption related to Transnet and tenders.

The guns are allegedly also linked to the shootings of several artists and may shed light on the killings of Oupa John Sefoka, better known as DJ Sumbody, and his apparent bodyguard, who went by the name of Wolter Sbusiso. Both were shot in Johannesburg in November 2022.

Sefoka and Sbusiso’s murders edge close to suspicions of gangsterism, drug trafficking, state corruption, extortion rackets and criminal networks embedded in private security companies and nightclubs.

It appears Sbusiso once worked for a security company founded by arrested businessperson Vusi “Cat” Matlala. Last year, Matlala was awarded a R360-million police contract that has since been terminated.

News24 reported that whistle-blower Babita Deokaran, who was murdered in August 2021, had flagged Matlala over contracts linked to Tembisa Hospital in Gauteng.

Last Sunday, 6 July, KwaZulu-Natal Police Commissioner Lieutenant General Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi alleged that Matlala was financially supporting Police Minister Senzo Mchunu’s “political endeavours”.

Mchunu has since denied knowing Matlala or receiving anything from him.

‘Unprecedented’ scandal

Apart from those accusations, Mkhwanazi alleged during the press conference in Durban that a high-level criminal syndicate was operating in South Africa.

He said it extended into the South African Police Service (SAPS), the Police Ministry, Parliament, prison officials, the judiciary and other law-enforcement authorities.

Mkhwanazi, whose security has been beefed up since he made his allegations, also said that a “drug cartel” headquartered in Gauteng was ultimately controlling the syndicate. If true, it means an internationally operating cartel, with ties to the state and the private sector, is based in the province that also houses South Africa’s administrative capital, Pretoria.

Read more: Mkhwanazi’s warning — drug cartel, criminal syndicate infest SA law enforcement

The unfolding crisis threatens to derail key policing operations and expose even deeper layers of corruption. It could also have an effect on political power.

National Police Commissioner General Fannie Masemola, who seems to back Mkhwanazi, described the scandal as “unprecedented” this week and said it struck at the heart of the police. President Cyril Ramaphosa is set to intervene.

Read more: Ramaphosa’s test of nerve — SA awaits announcement on Mkhwanazi’s explosive allegations

Bullets and ballistics

So far, the saga involves high-level claims, counterclaims and smear campaign accusations – elements often used to conceal state-embedded organised crime.

What cannot be refuted, however, is the body count that criminals in such circles produce, often by way of shootings. This is also where Mkhwanazi appears to be in possession of hard evidence. 

During his press briefing, he referred to the 2024 murder of Swart in Vereeniging. According to an earlier SAPS statement, four suspects were accused in the case, including one convicted of drug trafficking in the UK more than two decades ago, as News24 first reported. An arrest warrant was issued last month for a fifth suspect, Lucky Boitumelo Molefe.

Mkhwanazi, during his press conference, referred to one of the detained suspects in the case – Tau Pule, a police officer. “During the arrest, weapons used in the murder – an AK-47 and a pistol – along with cellphones, were confiscated,” Mkhwanazi said.

A ballistics expert from the Political Killings Task Team, created in 2018, examined the firearms. Mkhwanazi said that on 30 December last year, the expert issued a ballistics report “which linked these firearms with a number of high-profile cases – including [the shooting of] high-profile South African artists – which occurred in Gauteng dating as far back as 2021”. 

He did not name the artists, but he said suspects in the cases were known and decisions to prosecute them needed to be made.

He also alleged that the day after the crucial ballistics report was issued, 31 December 2024, Mchunu sent out a directive to freeze the filling of vacancies in the Crime Intelligence unit and to disband the Political Killings Task Team.

The disbanding, Mkhwanazi claimed, was so that Mchunu could shield politically connected members of a criminal syndicate from prosecution. 

Mchunu has dismissed the allegations.

Shootings and ‘protection’

Mkhwanazi’s accusations aside, the facts are that there have indeed been shootings targeting Johannesburg “artists” – DJs and high-profile figures. For example, actress Tebogo Thobejane was wounded in a shooting in Sandton in October 2023.

Among those arrested for her attempted murder is Matlala – whom Mkhwanazi has accused Mchunu of being in cahoots with.

Matlala is president of the company CAT VIP Protection, according to its website. It says: “With over 30 years experience in law enforcement, he founded CAT VIP as there was a need for elite human and asset protection in South Africa.”

Aside from Thobejane’s shooting, there have been other incidents in Johannesburg, such as the murders of Sefoka – DJ Sumbody – and Sbusiso. They were killed in Johannesburg in November 2022, nearly a year before Thobejane was wounded. Among those who attended Sefoka’s funeral was EFF leader Julius Malema.

Read more: Beyond DJ Sumbody’s murder – business tensions, underworld fears and a court order

After Mkhwanazi’s press conference on Sunday, suspicions and photographs did the rounds suggesting that Sbusiso was linked to CAT VIP Protection.

Daily Maverick found photos on Sbusiso’s social media profiles, as well as on CAT VIP’s Instagram page, showing that Sbusiso probably had worked for the company. A photo dated 2018 shows a man in company attire bearing a strong resemblance to Sbusiso, opening a car door for someone.

Another photo on Sbusiso’s Instagram page from 2018 shows him in a CAT VIP top, and a 2019 Facebook post shows him standing outside a black car with what appears to be a CAT VIP logo on his T-shirt. The photo is captioned: “Waiting my principal [sic].”

Gangsterism capital

Other photos – interspersed with images of liquor, luxury cars, designer clothing and a Rolex watch – show Sbusiso with Sefoka.

Entertainment establishments also fit into this matrix, hinting at potential dangers to patrons.

Sefoka was known for the Ayepyep Lifestyle brand, which he and his business partner, Kagiso Setsetse, created. It involved two venues – the Ayepyep Lifestyle Lounge in Menlyn, Pretoria, and another in Cape Town’s city centre.

Daily Maverick previously reported that 28s gang boss accused Ralph Stanfield and his wife Nicole Johnson were involved in Ayepyep Cape Town. 

Read more: Fear, violence and extortion in Cape Town — luxury venue Ayepyep closes amid claims of gangsterism and threats

The venue was temporarily closed in 2023 after accusations by Setsetse that Stanfield and Johnson, its general manager, were trying to dominate it. Among the accusations Setsetse made, which Stanfield countered with claims of his own, was that Stanfield was involved in handling security at Ayepyep Cape Town. In an affidavit to police, Setsetse also alleged that gangsters targeted the venue and “terrorised customers” after it opened in 2021.

A legal settlement in 2023 led to Setsetse selling his one-third share in the business. Other shares belong to Stanfield’s mother-in-law, Barbara Johnson, and to Sefoka’s family.

Read more: ‘Gang boss’ Ralph Stanfield wanted to take over ‘Steroid King’ Brian Wainstein’s business after killing — witness

If Mkhwanazi’s allegation is correct – that the AK-47 and pistol used in the Swart killing are indeed linked to other high-profile murders in Johannesburg – and if Sefoka’s shooting is part of this, it merges gang suspicions with the developing policing scandal.

Cartel country

In the Western Cape, suspicions are rife that there are crooked cops working with gangsters. This, in turn, ties into the drug trade. 

For a long time, there have been suspicions in policing circles that figures based in Gauteng import narcotics and pump them through South Africa, with a special focus on Western Cape gangs that act as conduits.

Specific suspicions involve luxury vehicles and drug consignments being exchanged between the provinces. There are also long-standing beliefs that politicians and individuals with state ties are benefiting from the illicit trade. 

Read more: SA’s Narcos Capture – the Mandrax trafficker and ‘wanted terrorist’ matrix haunting the ANC, Zuma, Guptas

Mkhwanazi, during his press conference, made allegations in this regard. A presentation he shared said an investigation involving police officers from KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng had “unmasked the syndicate which involves Politicians, Law Enforcement (SAPS, Metro Police & Correctional Services), Prosecutors, Judiciary and controlled by Drug cartel as well as Business People”. 

Mkhwanazi explained that this alleged cartel was headquartered in Gauteng and importing drugs from South America. The drugs often entered South Africa through Durban harbour. 

Read more: Connecting the global drug trafficking dots – Durban and Dubai linked to cocaine smuggling ‘supercartel’

Daily Maverick has previously reported that international traffickers prefer using this port when shipping masses of cocaine into the country.

Mkhwanazi said that from Durban, drugs were transported to Gauteng where they were processed and distributed around South Africa as well as beyond the country. 

The critical Crime Intelligence unit crops up here. Its head, Dumisani Khumalo, and six colleagues were arrested late last month on corruption-related charges, which they deny. Mkhwanazi has implied that they were arrested with the deliberate aim of destroying Crime Intelligence.

Khumalo’s name previously cropped up in a cocaine scandal linked to a R200-million interception in Johannesburg in July 2021. So, too, did that of Major General Feroz Khan, the head of counterintelligence and security at Crime Intelligence.

Daily Maverick previously reported that Khan was accused of defeating the ends of justice and bringing the SAPS into disrepute. This related to his presence at the 2021 cocaine bust, which had involved the arrests of police officers.

But Khan, via court processes, has countered that Khumalo had used the cocaine interception to try to get rid of him because of his investigations into the abuse of secret funds, with possible links to Khumalo. 

Police bosses denied that Khan was being targeted for dubious reasons.

Read more: Ongoing cocaine Crime Intelligence scandal fuels suspicions of police involvement in global drug trafficking

According to police, the cocaine at the centre of that scandal had come from Brazil, arrived in KwaZulu-Natal and been transported to Gauteng. 

It was not the only consignment to move from one province to the next. This is the same route that Mkhwanazi said the alleged cartel, with ties to various state authorities and headquartered in Gauteng, was using. 

Further backing his assertions is what happened in Port Shepstone, KwaZulu-Natal, in 2021. Between the weekend of 5 and 8 November that year, the Hawks offices there were burgled and cocaine worth R200-million was stolen.

A Hawks statement released afterwards said: “The suspects gained entry into the building by forcing open the windows. One of the safes in the office, which were used to store exhibits, was tampered with.”

Widely viewed as an inside job, the theft supports Mkhwanazi’s claim that corrupt police are involved in drug trafficking. DM

This story first appeared in our weekly DM168 newspaper, available countrywide for R35.