Unearthing policing skulduggery – A crime cartel, a kidnapping and an ‘informant’

Calvin Rafadi recalls the last time he saw Tshwane entrepreneur Jerry Boshoga – it was several weeks, possibly months, before Boshoga was reported as having been kidnapped in Centurion.

When Rafadi saw him, Boshoga was with Vusimuzi “Cat” Matlala, who is now accused of attempted murder and is alleged in testimony at the Madlanga Commission of Inquiry to be a key figure in a drug cartel known as the Big Five. Top police officers testified that the cartel has infiltrated South Africa’s politics and law enforcement.

“The last time I saw Jerry, I saw him with Vusi going to do their nails at a salon [in Menlyn],” Rafadi recalled to Daily Maverick this week. “I still joked … they mustn’t paint their nails black.”

Boshoga was kidnapped on 18 November last year after attending a business meeting. He is still missing.

Informant vs information peddler

Apart from apparently knowing each other, Rafadi, Boshoga and Matlala all have something else in common – they have been mentioned at the Madlanga Commission. 

What has emerged about Rafadi, though yet to be fully tested, brings his words and intentions into question.

Daily Maverick contacted Rafadi earlier this week while looking into Boshoga’s kidnapping. By the time this journalist managed to speak to him, his name had surfaced again at the Madlanga Commission, so the interview evolved into a broader look at him.

Read more: Your guide to the main players at the Madlanga Commission of Inquiry

This is not to endorse Rafadi or portray him negatively, but rather to emphasise the smoke-and-mirrors nature of organised crime, which makes it difficult to pinpoint the truth.

The commission started about three weeks ago to investigate explosive allegations made by KwaZulu-Natal police commissioner Lieutenant General Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi.

These included claims that a drug-trafficking cartel, subsequently identified as the Big Five, had infiltrated South African politics, policing and even private security.

Mkhwanazi was the commission’s first witness. He testified that Senzo Mchunu, who was police minister at the time, was influenced to order the disbanding of KwaZulu-Natal’s political killings task team because significant crime suspects had the impression that the team was investigating them. The implication was that the suspects included Matlala.

Mkhwanazi’s testimony also included reference to a “Mr Rafadi”, who sent a message to Matlala in February about a policing post that had been advertised. Matlala had allegedly replied that “it” (presumably the post) was given to “General Sibiya already”.

This appeared to be a reference to Lieutenant General Shadrack Sibiya, the deputy national commissioner of crime detection, who despite his denials of wrongdoing, was suspended as a result of the allegations he faces.

Days ago, Rafadi’s name cropped up at the Madlanga Commission again.

He was among individuals who, it was alleged, may have been paid to leak crucial police information to Matlala.

This is all at odds with Rafadi’s public persona – he has been quoted and interviewed extensively on different media platforms as a crime expert.

A website in his name describes him as a “Seasoned Certified Forensic Practitioner” who is “resolute in my commitment to unearthing the truth, upholding integrity, and advocating for those who cannot speak for themselves”.

Rafadi told Daily Maverick this week that he is a police informant and his cover was blown when Mkhwanazi testified about him in mid-September. (Rafadi said roughly the same to Sunday World.)

Rafadi insisted to Daily Maverick: “I am not an underworld [figure].” 

He said he worked “on the ground” and therefore had access to information that high-ranking  police officers – who relied on reports from colleagues to assess crime situations – did not have.

Rafadi added that he collected “appraisal letters” so it was known he was “connected to police”.

He intended to provide the Madlanga Commission with his version of events.

Shadowy web

Whatever the case may be, Rafadi operates among a shadowy cast of characters around whom hover dangerous suspicions of deep state corruption.

He acknowledged to Daily Maverick that he knows individuals whose names are, for various reasons, firmly fixed in South Africa’s criminal landscape.

The matters to which Rafadi is connected include:

• Allegations surrounding Matlala, the Gauteng figure to whom he allegedly leaked information, based on what has surfaced at the Madlanga Commission. 
• The Boshoga kidnapping case. Rafadi told Daily Maverick that he, Boshoga and Matlala (who both had security business links) knew each other from when they were young, and he tried to help Boshoga’s family by putting them in touch with top police officers after his kidnapping. He said the case was developing. (Daily Maverick’s attempt to contact Boshoga’s sister was unsuccessful.) 
• A Western Cape case against Nafiz Modack, who was recently sentenced in a case related to corrupt dealings with a policeman. Modack is still on trial in connection with the killing of senior detective Lieutenant Colonel Charl Kinnear in September 2020. Kinnear was shot dead outside his Cape Town home while investigating organised crime suspects, including fellow police officers, some of whom were based in Gauteng.

In the Kinnear murder trial, Rafadi was a witness. He testified that he had tracked the location of a cellphone for Modack by “pinging” it.

A Cape Town High Court judgment relating to the Kinnear matter, dated October last year, referred to a police captain’s affidavit that alleged: “Calvin Rafadi had received monies from Modack, including a payment of R180,000 shortly after Kinnear was shot.”

Rafadi told Daily Maverick that he went to “assist the court” in the Modack matter as a witness.

Active search and international cops

The Modack case aside, issues around Matlala, the Boshoga kidnapping and Rafadi have cropped up at the Madlanga Commission.

Reference to Boshoga underscores a critical aspect of the commission – that several cases it is hearing about are still under investigation. So, while witnesses are testifying, police investigators are trying to unravel intricate knots of crime.

Boshoga was kidnapped in Centurion in November last year after attending a meeting with an associate. It was previously reported that a R60-million ransom was demanded of his family, and this was later dropped to R10-million.

The case is chilling.

It involves loose suspicions about a drug deal gone wrong, wild theories that Boshoga was somehow involved in his own disappearance, and footage, which has been publicised, showing the bruised businessman begging for his life.

Daily Maverick asked the South African Police Service (SAPS) last week if there were any updates on the Boshoga kidnapping.

National police spokesperson Brigadier Athlenda Mathe said the case “is at a sensitive and advanced stage with a multidisciplinary team still on the ground actively searching for the businessman”.

She said Boshoga’s family was being given weekly updates on the matter.

“We have also roped in [the international police organisation] Interpol to assist with cross-border investigations. We have conducted various searches in Gauteng alone and are still searching,” Mathe said.

Reference to Interpol suggests Boshoga may have been moved out of South Africa, or that individuals from other countries are involved in what happened to him.

During the Madlanga Commission proceedings, it was heard that Matlala may be linked to the Boshoga case.

Referring to this, Mathe told Daily Maverick: “We cannot comment on the alleged involvement of Cat Matlala – that is under investigation.”

‘Cat’ and ‘collusion’ 

Last week the national police commissioner, General Fannie Masemola, testified at the commission and referred to the Boshoga case and several senior police officers, including the now suspended Sibiya. Masemola said “a concerned party” once requested to meet him. (Rafadi implied to Daily Maverick that Masemola was referring to him.)

This person, Masemola said, had alleged to him that Sibiya was a close friend of Matlala’s and that Matlala “was involved in various crimes and suspected to be involved in the kidnapping [of Boshoga].”

Read more: Big Five cartel’s dark web of political ties and criminal operations unveiled by Dumisani Khumalo

Masemola said that on 6 December last year (less than a month after Boshoga’s kidnapping), a team of police based in Gauteng conducted two operations.

One of these operations involved “the questioning of Mr Matlala regarding the kidnapping of one Mr Jerry Boshoga”.

Matlala went on to be arrested several months later, in May this year, in connection with  money laundering and attempted murder – his ex-girlfriend Tebogo Thobejane was the target of this plot.

Rewind a little.

Messages and ‘misinformation’

When Masemola had heard the allegations that Sibiya might be connected to Matlala, he had appointed Lieutenant General Dumisani Khumalo, who was South Africa’s head of Crime Intelligence at the time, to conduct an investigation.

Khumalo also testified at the Madlanga Commission this week. He said that Matlala’s phone records had shown he was in contact with various individuals.

This is where things loop back to Rafadi.

As Mkhwanazi had testified before him, Khumalo told the commission this week that Rafadi was among those who had been in contact with Matlala. 

Others allegedly included ANC businessmen from North West: Brown Mogotsi and Suleiman Carrim. 

(Mogotsi, at the commission, has been portrayed as something of a middleman between individuals including Matlala and the police minister at the time, Mchunu.)

Khumalo described Rafadi as an “academic commentator linked to several high-ranking SAPS officials”.

He testified: “Mr Carrim and Mr Rafadi appear to be paid by Mr Matlala for their access to senior SAPS members and their ability to advance the same goals as those pursued by Mr Mogotsi, and also to leak sensitive SAPS documents to Mr Matlala.”

Khumalo also spoke at length about misinformation and narratives that were allegedly pushed, at one point referring to Rafadi and “an exchange of false news”.

During his testimony, Khumalo focused on a radio interview that Rafadi took part in.

In it, Rafadi had supported Mchunu’s order to have KwaZulu-Natal’s political killings task team disbanded – which was allegedly done to protect criminal suspects, as some of South Africa’s most high-ranking police officers have testified at the Madlanga Commission.

All this suggests Khumalo was of the view that Rafadi was operating alongside a key politically connected crime suspect and was involved in misinformation campaigns to push certain agendas.

State of play

It is not yet clear when Rafadi and other implicated individuals will have their say at the Madlanga Commission.

Rafadi told Daily Maverick this week that he intends to “reveal” issues related to security clearance and Crime Intelligence informants’ pay.

Zoom out of this saga until individuals are no longer visible, and it presents itself as an age-old matrix involving accusations of dirty politics, corrupt police officers, dubious information peddlers and intentionally generated fake news.

These are the very elements that have enabled state-linked organised crime to thrive over decades, from apartheid into democracy. Whether the Madlanga Commission will be able to disrupt these sinister games is anyone’s guess.

It is proceeding despite a few setbacks.

Nearly a week ago, the commission’s chief evidence leader, advocate Terry Motau SC, suddenly stepped down.

Khumalo was expected to resume testifying on Wednesday after spending two days on the witness stand, but he reported that he was ill. 

Proceedings were adjourned.

In the midst of all this, Nathi Mthethwa, the former police minister and current ambassador to France, was found dead in Paris. Mkhwanazi, testifying at the Madlanga Commission, had accused Mthethwa of previously “interfering” in high-level policing matters.

The commission is expected to resume on 13 October. DM

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