Illustrative Image | Kenny Kunene. (Photo: Gallo Images / Luba Lesolle) | Katiso 'KT' Molefe. (Photo: Gallo Images / News24 / Rosetta Msimango) | DJ Sumbody. (Photo: Gallo Images / Frennie Shivambu) 
Politics, entertainment and shootings — these elements are part of South Africa’s seismic policing scandal that keeps erupting with fresh developments and suspicions.
While this saga emphasises just how fragmented the country’s law enforcement arena is, it also highlights the proximity of certain politicians to individuals who have become the targets of shootings.
This is not to suggest the politicians are in the wrong — they are not simply guilty by association.
The overall situation, though, points to a blurring of lines between some public servants and people publicly known for reasons unrelated to the state.
This reinforces ideas that political influence is seeping into various arenas.
Or, more specifically, what’s potting in some political offices is trickling into — and merging with — other spaces and even affecting street-level violence.
Optics and organised crime
There are optics associated with organised crime — and with politics.
Prolific long-term lawbreakers may not flaunt their wealth. They know that discretion helps create hurdles in “follow the money” investigative paths that lead to jail cells.
Financially flamboyant criminals attract more scrutiny. They may not care though, especially if they feel they are above the law.
Some organised crime suspects in South Africa flash their wealth — they use luxury cars reinforced against bullets.
There are stories of Rolex watches discovered during arrests, and some individuals accused of crime enter courtroom docks in designer gear.
Read more: Cape Town Mafia: Plumbing the depths of fiction and factions
Suspects can, based on material wealth, come across as celebrities.
Now, just to be clear, people can spend their honestly earned personal money however they choose.
This extends to politicians.
In a South African context, though, politicians in decision-making positions who are wealthy — and who show it — inevitably draw scrutiny.
This is because they are meant to be working to safeguard residents and improve the living conditions of the masses of people who are struggling to survive while up against factors including poor governance and state corruption.
Some may therefore view it as crass when elements of politics edge towards celebrity-style realms and reality show-type grandeur.
Outfits and opulence
On 6 July 2025, KwaZulu-Natal Police Commissioner Lieutenant-General Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi held a pivotal press conference during which he made astounding accusations that suggest that some of those in power are selling out South Africans.
The optics of this briefing were notable, with some saying it created the impression of a coup.
Mkhwanazi wore Special Task Force camouflage — he previously headed the unit — and was surrounded by armed police officers.
While his attire was scrutinised and, in some instances, criticised, it may make some sense if what Mkhwanazi alleged is true.
He said a drug cartel, headquartered in Gauteng and with ties to South America, was running a criminal syndicate that was embedded with corrupt state figures.
It is common knowledge that international cartels are ruthless and murder those who get in their way.
Mkhwanazi also alleged that at the end of last year the police minister at the time, Senzo Mchunu, issued a directive to disband the Political Killings Task Team to shield politically connected members of a criminal syndicate from prosecution.
Mkhwanazi’s other claims included that Mchunu was in cahoots with, among others, attempted murder case accused Vusi “Cat” Matlala. Mchunu denied the accusations but was placed on leave.
As for Matlala, central to the allegations against Mchunu, he seems to be someone who enjoyed an opulent lifestyle.
According to News24, he had “bankrolled a luxurious existence for himself and his family, marked by profligate spending on palatial homes, luxury cars and high-end fashion”.
Matlala faces criminal accusations in connection with the attempted murder of actress Tebogo Thobejane, who was wounded in a Sandton shooting in October 2023.
Other shootings of high-profile Gauteng figures fit into this broader matrix in which politicians keep cropping up.
[WATCH] As the ANC, we do not think that the matters raised by General Mkhwanazi border on politics. We think the matters are so serious that they border on criminality #KhokhelaRamaphosa#ANCRenewalAtWork pic.twitter.com/qHP3qbPIP1
— ANC SECRETARY GENERAL | Fikile Mbalula (@MbalulaFikile) July 15, 2025
In reaction to Mkhwanazi’s allegations, ANC Secretary-General Fikile Mbalula, who was once the minister of police and who is nicknamed “Razzmatazz” for his flashiness, took to the platform X.
Before we get to what he posted on there, it is noteworthy that Mbalula’s attire often gets attention. A few years ago, The Citizen even published a lifestyle piece about his “best looks”.
A section of that article referenced what it termed his “rapper riche” outfits, saying: “Keeping it young and trendy Mbalul[a] dabbles in loungewear, urban gear, and can often be seen in luxurious Gucci, wearing signature cardigans and embellished beanies.
“He’s often spotted in hoodies and comfortable Gucci tracksuits.”
Back to issues of national importance.
Crime and politics
Mbalula, in reaction to Mkhwanazi’s recent accusations, posted on X on 15 July 2025: “As the ANC, we do not think that the matters raised by General Mkhwanazi border on politics. We think the matters are so serious that they border on criminality.”
There are obvious overlaps between politics and organised crime, and where they overlap, they are effectively one and the same.
Take, for example, the State Capture that crushed the country when Jacob Zuma was president between 2009 and 2018 (when the ANC led South Africa before the Government of National Unity that is now in place).
Mkhwanazi’s recent accusations suggest the development of other iterations, or the continuation, of that capture.
Mbalula, meanwhile, aside from talking about politics bordering on criminality, knew an individual Mkhwanazi referenced during his pivotal press conference — rapper Kiernan Forbes, also known as AKA.
In 2020 Mbalula appeared on a TV show that Forbes hosted. He was South Africa’s transport minister at the time.
Maybe I should start a TV App and calling it’s MegaFIX TV ?
I’ve now watched #TheBraaiShowon #AKATV Good job @akaworldwide thank you for the engagement - big ups to your precessional production team. pic.twitter.com/OsLI5xxuxw
— ANC SECRETARY GENERAL | Fikile Mbalula (@MbalulaFikile) June 11, 2020
Forbes, who was based in Gauteng, went on to be murdered in a shooting with his celebrity chef friend, Tebello Motsoane, in KwaZulu-Natal in February 2023.
During his press conference earlier this month, Mkhwanazi pointed out that the police in KwaZulu-Natal had made arrests in that case, while suspects were yet to be taken into custody for other incidents involving high-profile individuals in Gauteng.
Mkhwanazi said the suspects in those Gauteng cases had been identified, but prosecutors were basically dragging their feet in signing off on arrests.
It appeared that among those Gauteng cases was one linked to Oupa John Sefoka, better known as DJ Sumbody, who was murdered there in a shooting in November 2022.
DJ Sumbody’s murder
Sefoka’s Instagram account is full of dazzling photographs. Think designer clothing, liquor and luxury cars.
Through entertainment venues he had been associated with individuals including alleged 28s gang boss Ralph Stanfield, who was arrested at his home in the upmarket Cape Town suburb of Constantia in 2023.
Sefoka’s funeral was an elaborate one.
View this post on Instagram
Among those who spoke at it was EFF leader Julius Malema, whose name is among those embroiled in the VBS bank scandal, and who faces accusations in connection with the alleged discharge of a firearm at a party event in 2018.
Back to the Sefoka case.
Arrests were only carried out recently, on 21 July 2025, three years after the shooting and only after Mkhwanazi’s press conference during which he implied that certain prosecutors were holding up cases.
Another politician crops up here.
Firstly I believe Kenny 100%, I can’t expect everyone to believe him hence we launching a full investigation to proof what we know already know which is that he is innocent. We will share the whole process and findings.
— Gayton McKenzie (@GaytonMcK) July 22, 2025
News24 reported that when the police arrested Katiso Molefe, a key suspect in the Sefoka murder case, at his Sandton home, the Patriotic Alliance’s Kenny Kunene was outside the house.
Kunene, who has a well-documented past involving unrelated crime, insisted to News24 that he was merely accompanying a young journalist there and that he had no relationship with Molefe whatsoever.
The Patriotic Alliance’s Gayton McKenzie, South Africa’s Minister of Sports, Arts and Culture, suspended Kunene the day his presence outside the suspect’s home was reported on.
McKenzie said this was simply to go through due processes as he believed that Kunene was innocent of any wrongdoing.
Now, McKenzie has been open about his past that has involved crime and time in jail.
He has before referred to his younger self as “a common criminal” who became a gangster around the age of 12 or 13 years.
As a minister, he has not shied away from that.
Read more: ‘He would never get involved with murders,’ says Gayton McKenzie after suspending Kenny Kunene
Gang suspicions
It is in this arena that a web of shootings (some with suspected links to gangs in the Western Cape) and court issues start unfurling.
These predate, and now include, Sefoka’s murder.
Politicians’ names, for various reasons and again not to suggest that they are in the wrong, are dotted in between.
- Former Hard Livings gang boss Rashied Staggie was murdered in Cape Town in 2019. Staggie had previously indicated he was backing McKenzie and Kunene’s Patriotic Alliance. About a decade ago McKenzie had referred to Staggie as “a leader”.
- In 2021 William “Red” Stevens, widely reputed to have been the most senior 27s gangster, was killed in a shooting in Cape Town. At the time Stevens was facing criminal charges in connection with a murder plot. McKenzie spoke at his funeral.
- Alleged 28s gang boss Stanfield has several co-accused in the case he is currently charged in. Two of the co-accused face accusations in connection with Stevens’ murder. Stanfield also faces charges for a murder conspiracy relating to Staggie’s killing. He previously faced other housing tender-linked charges, that were provisionally withdrawn, alongside former DA Cape Town human settlements mayoral committee member, Malusi Booi.
- Stanfield was among those acquainted with Sefoka, who was murdered in the 2022 Gauteng shooting. It was Sefoka’s funeral at which Malema spoke.
- On 21 July 2025, police officers happened upon Kunene outside the home of one of the suspects arrested in connection with Sefoka’s murder.
This web, even if the politicians mentioned in it are totally innocent of wrongdoing, is concerning because it is a tiny fragment of a much more expansive web.
Mkhwanazi’s recent accusations, while yet to be fully tested, highlight other parts of this web and suspected overlaps between organised crime and politics.
So far, President Cyril Ramaphosa seems to have taken Mkhwanazi seriously — he has appointed a commission of inquiry to investigate his allegations.
As for Malema and McKenzie, they are among politicians who have expressed support for Mkhwanazi (although McKenzie was one of those who viewed Mkhwanazi’s press briefing attire as coup-esque).
‘Politicians who must still go to prison’
The two politicians have quite a past. McKenzie wrote an open letter to Malema back in 2014.
A section said: “Julius, you and I are not ‘revolutionaries’. We both know that. We both shop at the same Louis Vuitton and Gucci shops. We both have watches worth hundreds of thousands…
“For people like us to call ourselves revolutionaries is an insult to history’s real revolutionaries.”
style="font-weight: 400;">previously told journalists: “I bought Louis Vuitton and Gucci before VBS… No one can tell me what to wear and not to wear.”)
McKenzie had also stated in the letter to Malema: “You get two kinds of politicians in this country: the ones who come from prison and those who must still go to prison.”
Read more: Dear Julius… have you no shame?
Mkhwanazi’s recent accusations, paired with past State Capture allegations, now underscore some of McKenzie’s words.
There are undoubtedly politicians “who must still go to prison”.
Even if the intent behind Mkhwanazi’s accusations against politicians and figures in the state is questionable, his allegations have at the very least brought focus onto an arena involving suspicions of rogue state and political activity in organised crime.
These kinds of suspicions are not new.
But the latest accusations make the optics of this arena clearer.
And they emphasise how criminality — from killings on street corners, to dirty money spending sprees and political skullduggery — cuts through vastly different sectors and endangers innocent residents. DM