Jail ‘captured journalists’ and ‘negligent MPs with leaked intelligence’ – Mkhwanazi

KwaZulu-Natal police commissioner Lieutenant General Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi has made clear his feelings about journalists he alleges have spread dubious agendas and MPs he has accused of recklessly handling intelligence information.

He told Parliament on Wednesday, 8 October 2025, that the journalists should be jailed.

“There must be a heavy penalty [for] the mistakes done by journalists,” he said.

As for MPs, Mkhwanazi suggested that two of them, who he alleged were negligent in the way they handled sensitive information, spend time in prison to learn a lesson.

Read more: MK party tries to pin down Mkhwanazi on Ramaphosa before Parliament’s ad hoc committee

He was speaking during the second day of an ad hoc committee’s hearings into accusations he initially publicised about three months ago.

This included that criminals had infiltrated South African politics and policing.

The ad hoc committee is one of two hearings into Mkhwanazi’s accusations – the other is the Madlanga Commission of Inquiry that began last month.

MPs who form part of the parliamentary committee had the opportunity on Wednesday to question Mkhwanazi, who was a witness in the hearings for a second consecutive day.

His responses involved references to allegedly “captured” journalists, “agents”, devious fellow police officers and MPs with access to intelligence information that they dealt with “negligently”.

This all created the impression that there was a group in South Africa hiding deep-seated agendas to the detriment of the state – and to that of Mkhwanazi and certain of his colleagues.

The people Mkhwanazi referred to on Wednesday have not yet formally had a chance to respond to his allegations and assertions.

‘Crime Intelligence handlers’

Ian Cameron of the DA asked him about issues that included misinformation.

This was apparently in relation to previous assertions from Mkhwanazi that certain high-level officers in Crime Intelligence and the police service’s vetting department were directing damaging misinformation to, among others, journalists.

Mkhwanazi, responding to Cameron, referred to a query he once received from a City Press journalist, Abram Mashego, who Mkhwanazi alleged was: “The one who is being handled by Crime Intelligence, amongst others.”

Read more: Police war of words continues as Sibiya accuses Masemola of ‘tainted’ process against him

Mashego had asked for Mkhwanazi’s response to legal action that Deputy National Commissioner of Crime Detection Shadrack Sibiya was apparently instituting against him.

This was after 6 July 2025, the day Mkhwanazi held a press conference and made several high-level accusations, including that Sibiya played a role in trying to disband KwaZulu-Natal’s political killings task team.

It has been alleged that the plans to disband the task team were made to effectively protect criminal suspects.

Sibiya denied any wrongdoing, but was subsequently suspended.

‘They must end up in jail’

On Wednesday, during the parliamentary hearing, Mkhwanazi said it appeared that Mashego had been fed details about potential legal action Sibiya was instituting.

But Mkhwanazi had not yet seen any such court papers.

He said he replied to Mashego, saying, in part: “I hope you are not one of those captured.”

Mkhwanazi said he deliberately used those words because he was of the view that Mashego was a captured journalist.

Read more: Crime Intelligence target of social media fake news, but Parliament hears unit also like ‘a mafia’

“He’s one of the enablers,” Mkhwanazi alleged.

“And there are many journalists. That’s why I’m calling for a state security investigation against them because I have a list of them, and there are a handful of them.”

Mkhwanazi also addressed lawmakers in Parliament, asking if they would implement measures to “make sure a journalist is not hiding” behind a job title when they were instead reporting inaccurately to tarnish others.

He went further, saying media houses should dismiss journalists who were at fault to ensure accountability. Mkhwanazi said, “They must end up in prison.”

‘Extraordinary attack on media freedom’

The South African National Editors’ Forum (Sanef) released a statement on Wednesday in reaction to what Mkhwanazi told Parliament.

“Mkhwanazi launched an extraordinary attack on media freedom by asking the ad-hoc committee, as well as the joint standing committee on intelligence, to task the state security apparatus to conduct a counterintelligence investigation against the South African news media,” it said.

“This would represent a significant setback for media freedom in South Africa, reminiscent of the oppressive tactics employed by the apartheid state to suppress truthful journalism.”

Statement: SANEF condemns Mkhwanazi’s attack against the mediahttps://t.co/kbhmxOObn3 pic.twitter.com/ynPIPdEUwC

— SANEF (@SAEditorsForum) October 8, 2025

Sanef said it hoped that National Police Commissioner Fannie Masemola and acting Police Minister Feroz Cachalia would publicly condemn Mkhwanazi’s statements.

It pointed out that the context beneath what Mkhwanazi was calling for was linked to media reports on Crime Intelligence and the Inspector-General of Intelligence’s findings.

Sanef said those findings recommended “that Masemola should face criminal and disciplinary charges for approving the purchase of properties worth a collective R120-million by Crime Intelligence”.

‘MPs should sit in prison’

Meanwhile, during Wednesday’s ad hoc committee proceedings, Mkhwanazi also made his feelings about some politicians very clear, referring to the DA’s Dianne Kohler Barnard and National Coloured Congress leader Fadiel Adams.

Their names have also cropped up during testimony to the Madlanga Commission of Inquiry.

During those proceedings, Mkhwanazi had alleged that Kohler Barnard appeared to have obtained information about Crime Intelligence that should not have been disseminated. 

Read more: Mkhwanazi alleges SA’s new capture — malicious corruption-busters and classified intelligence leaks

Mkwanazi had therefore accused Kohler Barnard of breaking the law and “fuelling these malicious attacks” involving Crime Intelligence.

He had also alleged to the Madlanga Commission that Adams had “unauthorised access to intelligence information” and used it recklessly.

(At the time, Kohler Barnard said Mkhwanazi’s accusations were “absurd”, while Adams had told eNCA he did not understand why Mkhwanazi was “fixated on him”.)

During Wednesday’s parliamentary hearing, Mkhwanazi again referred to Kohler Barnard, Adams and their alleged handling of leaked sensitive information.

He said: “They should go to [Cape Town’s] Pollsmoor [prison] and sit there for a while so that they can learn something.”

‘UK agent?’

In Wednesday’s proceedings, EFF leader Julius Malema asked Mkhwanazi about forensic investigator Paul O’Sullivan.

O’Sullivan was previously linked to the Mkhwanazi accusations scandal when it emerged that he had been involved in opening dockets against Crime Intelligence.

There had later been arrests in the unit, which Mkhwanazi previously said had been targeted at imploding investigations.

O’Sullivan has been heavily involved in policing, crime investigation and State Capture-linked matters in South Africa.

Malema, who described him as “untouchable” and “a bully”, asked Mkhwanazi if O’Sullivan was a United Kingdom MI6 intelligence agent.

Read more: AmaBhungane’s journalists versus Zunaid Moti and Paul O’Sullivan

Mkhwanazi replied that he had heard “talks” about this and claimed that O’Sullivan had citizenship in three countries, which made him “wonder”.

“Is Paul O’Sullivan a clean man or an agent? This country must not sit back and be run by Paul O’Sullivan,” Mkhwanazi said.

O’Sullivan has not yet had the opportunity to officially respond to this.

The parliamentary hearing is set to continue on Thursday, when Masemola is expected to testify. DM