Illustrative image | Lieutenant-General Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi, KwaZulu-Natal police commissioner. (Photo: Gallo Images / Darren Stewart) | City of Cape Town Mayoral Committee Member for Safety and Security, Alderman JP Smith. (Photo: Gallo Images / Brenton Geach) 
Claims of political meddling in policing have brought closer two major scandals — raids earlier this year on DA City of Cape Town councillors and a subsequent national law enforcement accusation explosion.
The South African Police Service (SAPS) raids were carried out on 24 January 2025 at the offices of JP Smith, who heads the City’s safety and security portfolio, and Xanthea Limberg, who heads the energy portfolio.
At the time, Smith said: “I have been tipped off that some political actors have been working on a smear campaign and have mobilised a political ‘hit squad’ against me.
“Apart from these telltale warning signs, I have been reliably informed that senior ANC politicians have been briefed by members within the SAPS.”
‘Unconstitutional’
A few months later, in April this year, Smith and Limberg launched legal action against the police, including the Western Cape commissioner and national minister, in reaction to the raid.
This resulted in a Western Cape division of the High Court order on Thursday, 11 September 2025.
It said: “The search and seizure warrants are declared to be inconsistent with the Constitution, unlawful and invalid.”
The police also had a week to “return all the articles seized in terms of the search and seizure warrant” and delete mirror images or data obtained from devices.
The costs of the application were to be paid by the police minister.
Daily Maverick on Friday asked the Western Cape police how they planned to react to the court order. Provincial spokesperson Colonel Andrè Traut responded: “Kindly be advised that SAPS Legal Services are still in the process of reviewing the outcome you referred to.
“Once the review has been completed, this office will be in a position to provide you with our comments at an appropriate time.”
This saga may create more tension between the DA-run City of Cape Town and the SAPS, which is widely viewed as an ANC remit.
There has been longstanding friction between the City and the SAPS, with the City wanting more law enforcement functions devolved to it.
‘Attacks turned personal’
On Thursday night Smith issued a statement about the court order development.
He reiterated that he believed the raid on his office was “the result of a calculated smear campaign against me”.
Smith said investigations emanating from the City resulted in syndicates being identified in Cape Town, which culminated in the National Treasury blacklisting some individuals and companies, meaning they could not get government contracts in the country.
This has indeed been the case — Daily Maverick previously reported on how the City of Cape Town blacklisted businesses linked to Nicole Johnson, who is the wife of alleged 28s gang boss Ralph Stanfield.
The National Treasury also restricted one of her companies.
Smith, in his statement on Thursday, said: “I believe this is the motivation behind the smear campaign — to hamstring the City’s investigations. When the City started arresting hundreds of drug dealers and gangsters with illegal firearms, it caused little interest in our activity.
“It was only when the impact of these investigations was felt by the heads of these syndicates that the attacks turned personal.”
City and national cop scandal
This is where the City of Cape Town raids scandal starts edging closer to a national police one that erupted in July when KwaZulu-Natal’s police head Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi made a startling series of accusations during a press conference.
Mkhwanazi’s accusations included that the police minister at the time, Senzo Mchunu, along with others including Deputy National Commissioner of Crime Detection, Lieutenant-General Shadrack Sibiya, had undermined investigations into political killings.
Mchunu and Sibiya, who were subsequently placed on leave, denied this.
Smith, in his statement on Thursday, referenced this saga.
“The recent allegations pertaining to Minister Senzo Mchunu suggest the increasing weaponisation of the criminal justice system against political opponents,” he said. “I purposefully did not comment on the claims made by General Mkhwanazi as I could not confidently know the facts of the matter.”
Smith said two aspects of Mkhwanazi’s allegations “rang true”.
One related to a National Assembly member being given confidential police information as part of a smear campaign. (During his July press conference Mkhwanazi alleged that “members of Crime Intelligence released classified documents and handed them over to a member of Parliament”.)
Smith added: “Secondly, the claims that Minister Mchunu had been briefed on criminal cases sounded familiar, as I know for a fact that he had been briefed on the plans to search my office.” (Mchunu has not yet had a chance to respond to this.)
A commission of inquiry — the Madlanga Commission — into Mkhwanazi’s allegations is set to start next Wednesday, and more claims around Mchunu are expected to be aired and interrogated.
Mkhwanazi will probably be the first witness to testify at the commission.
‘Motives’
Smith, meanwhile, in his statement on Thursday night, thanked those who supported him.
He also said: “When you do the right thing and you know the claims are false, you cannot wonder about the motives of all those who eagerly fabricated or fanned these rumours.
/file/dailymaverick/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/ED_543697.jpg "Documents, including documents from the City of Cape Town that were used in court cases, are loaded into a vehicle during a raid at the offices of JP Smith and Xanthea Limberg on 24 January 2025 in Cape Town, South Africa. (Photo: Gallo Images / Die Burger / Jaco Marais)")
“This includes some members of the media who published dubious ‘analysis’ pieces fanning these conspiracies.”
The month after the raids, Daily Maverick published an analysis about how smear campaign accusations had been exchanged between the DA and the ANC in Cape Town for years.
This saw police resources in and around the city being — legitimately or not — being directed towards politicians.
Read more: Smear campaign or justice? Behind the police raid on DA’s Xanthea Limberg and JP Smith
Another analysis Daily Maverick published the same week as the raids outlined the two main countering scenarios these pointed to — a political conspiracy as Smith was saying, or a clean police investigation that was being viewed as a smear campaign.
The piece had also said that various sources were of the view that the initial intent driving investigations that branched out and led up to the raids was based solely on fighting crime.
This was because the raids on Smith and Limberg appeared to be linked to an investigation into, among others, Nicole Johnson and Ralph Stanfield.
Ralph Stanfield investigation
That investigation involved tenders worth around R1-billion and was into suspects including the City of Cape Town’s former human settlements mayoral committee member, Malusi Booi.
Booi’s city office was raided in March 2023, and he was arrested more than a year later, in September 2024.
He faced accusations that he had accepted gratifications from Stanfield.
In May this year, however, the charges relating to City tenders were provisionally withdrawn.
This meant Booi was off the hook pending what happened to the charges.
Johnson, Stanfield and several other accused, however, remain in custody over other criminal accusations.
This suggests that the overall investigation was initially focused on issues that resulted in criminal charges that have stuck to suspects including Johnson and Stanfield, as well as accusations that are pending and that may still affect Booi.
In other words, this part of the investigation, before branching out and eventually resulting in the Smith and Limberg raids, appears to be sound. DM