Your guide to the main players at the Madlanga Commission of Inquiry

Justice Mbuyiseli Madlanga (chair)

The former Constitutional Court judge and acting Deputy Chief Justice has swapped his red robe for the grey slog of commission management. Madlanga has a reputation for rigour and restraint; he is an intellectual with a passion for jurisprudence, but here he is being asked to referee something more like a cage fight between a policing maverick (Lieutenant General Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi) and his political masters.

Madlanga’s last experience at a commission of inquiry charged with investigating potential police misconduct was on the other side of the bench: he was the main evidence leader at the Marikana Commission before his Constitutional Court appointment.

Lt-Gen Nhlanhla ‘Lucky’ Mkhwanazi

KwaZulu-Natal’s police commissioner detonated the bomb that forced President Cyril Ramaphosa’s hand. At a July press conference, flanked by balaclava-clad Special Task Force members, Mkhwanazi accused now suspended Police Minister Senzo Mchunu and now suspended Deputy National Commissioner for Crime Detection Shadrack Sibiya of meddling in investigations and potentially protecting criminal syndicates. His testimony is the commission’s ignition point.

A former Special Task Force commander himself, he has the unvarnished manner of speaking of a career police officer, and is seemingly oblivious to political niceties. His fearless, no-nonsense reputation has earned him considerable support in a country thoroughly gatvol of crime, with his tough-guy image burnished by the perception that in KZN, cops aren’t afraid to shoot to kill.

The allegations he is making against Mchunu are some of the most explosive claims South Africa has ever heard levelled at a sitting Cabinet minister. Some worry that Mkhwanazi has ulterior political motives; he has, for instance, received the full-throated backing of Jacob Zuma’s MK party.

But those saying he deserves a sober hearing-out include the Gift of the Givers founder,

Sooliman, while DA leader John Steenhuisen has said of Mkhwanazi: “I don’t think he’s someone who makes wild, unsubstantiated allegations.”

Senzo Mchunu

Mchunu was regarded as one of the good guys, inasmuch as, before Mkhwanazi’s allegations, he had kept his profile free from corruption scandals and helped usher in the so-called New Dawn. Mchunu was on Ramaphosa’s slate going into the ANC electoral conference at Nasrec in 2017 and was one of the chief campaigners for Ramaphosa, helping to split the vote in KZN, which had been assumed to be overwhelmingly in favour of Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma.

After a series of showboating but ineffective police ministers (think Bheki Cele and Fikile Mbalula), Mchunu seemed to bring a cooler head and lower profile to the post, with some initially positive signs on the crime rate front.

Once the face of police “stability”, Mchunu now finds himself in the dock of public opinion. Ramaphosa suspended him immediately after Mkhwanazi’s allegations. The charge sheet is tremendously concerning: political interference, meddled dockets, disbanded task teams.

Mchunu’s defences to date have seemed inadequate: in Parliament, he denied knowing one of the saga’s key figures, Brown Mogotsi (see below), but later admitted the man was “a comrade” but not “an associate”. It sounded Bill Clinton-esque. Mchunu insists on his innocence; the commission will test whether his word can survive scrutiny.

Lt-Gen Shadrack Sibiya

Sibiya is Mkhwanazi’s second target. There was probably no love lost between Mkhwanazi and Sibiya going into this, since the two men had previously been reported as being in competition for the same police leadership posts.

Sibiya stands accused by Mkhwanazi specifically of meddling with more than 120 dockets, potentially to shield criminal suspects. He, too, denies all wrongdoing and has instructed Mkhwanazi to stop “acting like a warlord”.

Sibiya is, as Marianne Thamm wrote in 2018, “not a man to be toyed with” — with his own reputation as a crack crimefighter at stake.

Brown Mogotsi

Mchunu’s “comrade but not associate”, Mogotsi, a Mafikeng businessman, is perhaps the most colourful subplot of this saga. Mogotsi is accused by Mkhwanazi of being the go-between between Mchunu and alleged criminal Vusimuzi “Cat” Matlala (see below).

As Daily Maverick has reported, Mogotsi also has an unsettling history as a fervent campaigner for President Cyril Ramaphosa in North West.

Mogotsi’s credibility is questionable; he has made a series of outlandish claims, including being an “undercover operative” who helped bring the Facebook Rapist, Thabo Bester, to book. However, he reportedly has very real political connections.

That someone with such a chequered history could access sensitive SAPS documentation, as Mkhwanazi claims, raises the spectre of syndicate infiltration that Mkhwanazi alleged. Whether he is a hapless hanger-on or a fixer with clout, Mogotsi looks likely to embody the blurred lines between politics, policing and hustling.

Vusimuzi ‘Cat’ Matlala

This businessman with a knack for appearing in sensitive procurement corners is routinely referred to in the press as a “tender tycoon”, but he also appeared in court on Wednesday, charged with the attempted murder of his former lover, and was denied bail.

One of Mkhwanazi’s key claims is that the special task force that Mchunu ordered disbanded was going after a criminal syndicate involving Matlala, and that Matlala received a tip-off from Mogotsi. There are a lot of M names in this story; apologies.

Evidence leaders

Adv Terry Motau SC 

Motau is perhaps best known as the architect of the VBS “Great Bank Heist” report, which sent shockwaves through municipalities and political patronage networks for its punishing prose. Now, as chief evidence leader, he is running the show at the Madlanga Commission. His natty red suit and bowtie on Wednesday were the talk of the town.

Adv Matthew Chaskalson SC

He carries the surname of democratic South Africa’s first Constitutional Court President and the gravitas to match his famous father, Arthur. Chaskalson knows the meaning of “country duty”, having served on the State Capture and Marikana commissions. Expect quiet precision and the occasional arched eyebrow at evasive witnesses.

Adv Mahlape Sello SC

There’s no questioning Sello’s experience or legal chops — but in the past she has had to fight off accusations of being a political operative after taking on the Section 89 Phala Phala panel investigating Ramaphosa’s couch and finding that he may have violated the Constitution and anti-corruption laws. Ramaphosa’s defenders squealed bias — because Sello previously represented ANC secretary-general Ace Magashule against Ramaphosa and the ANC in his court bid to be reinstated. Legal scholars said there was no basis for the criticism of Sello.

Adv Adila Hassim SC

South Africans know Adila Hassim’s voice from the Life Esidimeni arbitration, where she insisted on naming every victim of the atrocity. More recently, she stood before the International Court of Justice to argue South Africa’s genocide case against Israel. As much an activist as a lawyer, she specialises in inserting human cost into dry legal records.

Adv Lee Segeels-Ncube

A Johannesburg commercial and administrative law advocate, Segeels-Ncube is less of a household name but plays a vital role in the evidence-gathering process, with a reputation for diligence and precision.

Adv Ofentse Motlhasedi

A former clerk at the Constitutional Court and the Supreme Court of Kenya, and an alumnus of the public-interest law centre Seri, Motlhasedi will also bring a rights-oriented legal compass to proceedings.

Adv Thabang Pooe

Pooe cut her teeth at SECTION27, clerked for none other than Justice Madlanga himself, and also had a role to play in the Life Esidimeni inquest. Pooe represents the younger wave of advocates who blend legal smarts with an activist edge.

Commissioners & support

Adv Sesi Baloyi SC

As co-commissioner, Baloyi ensures Madlanga isn’t a one-man show. Senior and seasoned, you may recognise Baloyi’s unflappable aura and steely mind from her years on the Judicial Service Commission. This is someone who will not be unnerved by sitting in the political spotlight.

Adv Sandile Khumalo SC

The other co-commissioner to Madlanga, Sandile Khumalo, has a lower profile and wasn’t heard much on the commission’s first day of sitting. With a background in commercial and constitutional law, Khumalo brings an experienced legal head to bear on proceedings.

Dr Nolitha Vukuza (secretary)

Better known from her tenure in higher education governance for the University of Johannesburg, Vukuza now has the thankless job of making sure the commission’s machinery doesn’t collapse: that transcripts are delivered, evidence catalogued and schedules kept.

Commission secretaries generally don’t make the news, but when they do, you can bet it’s for significant reasons. Think Khotso de Wee, the first secretary of the Zondo Commission, who had to step down after being implicated to the commission for allegedly accepting bribes from Bosasa.

Dr Peter Goss (chief investigator)

An academic turned forensic sleuth, Goss is a University of Johannesburg professor of practice in governance and auditing. His unenviable task at the Madlanga Commission is to get his hands thoroughly dirty in the muck of the police underworld, sifting through tenders, phone records and money trails.

Before becoming a forensic auditor and academic, Goss had hands-on experience in policing: he started as a detective warrant officer in the late 1980s, then moved into corporate investigations and later big-firm auditing. That mix of field police work and auditing gives him a slightly unusual trajectory among evidence-gathering types, but a tremendously useful skillset.

Whether Mkhwanazi’s explosive claims are to be substantiated or dismissed, Goss must produce the smoking documents. DM