Illustrative image: Sergeant Fannie Nkosi testifies at the Madlanga Commission of Inquiry. (Photo: Gallo Images / Frennie Shivambu) Sergeant Fannie Nkosi spent the Easter weekend in jail after being escorted from his Pretoria North home by a special investigations task team comprised of SAPS members working with the Madlanga Commission of Inquiry into police corruption and infiltration by organised crime.
The weight of Nkosi’s alleged evidence could topple the dominoes, exposing the faces and big names behind the deep-rooted infiltration of organised crime into law enforcement in South Africa.
The affable, burly policeman faces multiple charges, including defeating the ends of justice, possession of unlicensed ammunition and a stun grenade. The task team raid also turned up copies of sensitive SAPS dockets.
A previous swoop at his home in October 2025 yielded R325,000 in cash. Nkosi said the money, discovered in a safe, belonged to his brother. The police officer’s devices were seized during that raid, with all messages and communications intact. Nkosi appeared briefly in the Pretoria North Magistrates’ court on Tuesday, where his case was postponed to 13 April 2026.
The Chaskalson effect
/file/dailymaverick/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/ED_170497.jpg "Madlanga Commission evidence leader advocate Matthew Chaskalson SC. (Photo: Gallo Images / Phill Magakoe)")
Over the eight days that Nkosi was slow-roasted by Madlanga Commission of Inquiry evidence leader, advocate Matthew Chaskalson, it became evident that he was a possible major conduit between organised crime networks, politicians and corrupt senior law enforcement officials.
If there is a weak link in the Omerta chain surrounding the true identities of the big fish, it is this smaller fish, Fannie Nkosi. While he has tried hard to protect those he served and connected, evidence extracted from his devices has been damning, appearing to place him at the centre of the network.
Nkosi is a man who lived life large, loved guns, fast motorbikes and jet skis, and who feigned ignorance about Ian Fleming’s famous spy, 007 (he signed off this way once) when asked about it.
He is also accused of acting as an intermediary for suspended Deputy National Police Commissioner for Crime Detection Shadrack Sibiya, and criminal networks. Sibiya has admitted to meeting the late Pretoria taxi boss, Jothan Zanemvula Msibi, who has been named as the ultimate cartel boss, but said this was related to industry matters.
/file/attachments/orphans/ED_601924_452651.jpg "Vusimuzi ‘Cat’ Matlala in the Pretoria Magistrates’ Court on 25 March 2026. (Photo: Gallo Images / Frennie Shivambu)")
The commission heard that Sibiya received 20 impala from murder accused Vusimuzi “Cat” Matlala, which were delivered to his farm after Nkosi passed on messages between the two. Sibiya has denied that he received the animals from Matlala and said he had messaged Nkosi to tell him he did not want the impalas.
My father the taxi boss
Nkosi earlier informed the commission that he had, in fact, been “adopted” as a young boy by Msibi, known as Mswazi, who died in 2024 and who has been named the leader of the Big Five.
He said he had originally saved Mswazi’s cellphone number under “uBaba”, until the old man told him to rather call him “boss”, so he saved it as “Mswazi Taxi Boss”. Nkosi’s position at SAPS in the organised crime unit would most certainly have provided access to the inner workings of law enforcement and private security.
Matlala had provided security for Msibi three years before his death.
Nkosi also told the commission that he had communicated with Siphiwe Mabuza, son of the late deputy president DD Mabuza, who had asked him to find a buyer for around 750 firearms valued at around R15,000 each.
He explained to commissioners that he did not find anything untoward about being approached, as an SAPS member, by a businessman selling weapons, and had reckoned it had been a sales pitch. He said he did not know the identity of any of Mabuza’s “partners”.
“If the guns were illegal, then there is no way he could sell them,” Nkosi offered. Asked by commissioner Sisi Baloyi, “750 guns and you as a police officer did not see a problem with that?” Nkosi looked nonplussed.
Parallel Union Buildings
Msibi’s farm, outside Pretoria, has been described as a “parallel Union Buildings” by KwaZulu-Natal Police Commissioner Major General Nhlanthla Mkhwanazi, where politicians, top government officials and other power brokers regularly gathered en masse to share information.
/file/dailymaverick/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/ED_565541.jpg "Katiso ‘KT’ Molefe. (Photo: Gallo Images / News24 / Rosetta Msimango)")
The commission has heard that Nkosi regarded Matlala and murder accused, Katiso “KT” Molefe, as brothers, had visited Molefe’s house and was in communication with Joe “Ferrari” Sibanyoni, a taxi boss whom Matlala allegedly tried to murder.
Mkhwanazi also named Molefe as one of the key cartel members. He faces murder charges related to the assassination of Vereeniging engineer Armand Swart, as well as charges relating to the 2022 murders of Oupa John Sefoka, known as DJ Sumbody, and Hector Buthelezi, known as DJ Vintos.
Lucky Molefe, a Transnet buyer, had been under pressure from investigators in April 2024 to hand over doctored tender documents reflecting inflated prices for a spring when Swart was killed in what is believed to be a case of mistaken identity.
Molefe turned to his uncle, KT Molefe, who, in turn, approached the police officer Michael Tau, who allegedly moonlighted as a hitman – a chain of events that allegedly led to the murder of Swart.
On CCTV
Nkosi was captured on CCTV arriving at Molefe’s home empty-handed and leaving with a white bag, which he claimed contained motorsport clothes, but which Chaskalson said appeared to be cash.
Nkosi has also admitted to sharing confidential information with controversial businessman Steve Motsumi because of his “love for the country”. This is in relation to an email he had forwarded about Mozambican kidnapping kingpin, Esmael Nangy, to Motsumi, who was part of Msibi’s network.
Nkosi, days after the murder of Sefoka, messaged Sefoka’s friend Mpho Lekukela to ask why he didn’t “call him to order”, a statement he feebly tried to explain away.
It was after Msibi’s death that the cracks in the operation first began to appear, with a jostling for turf, position and power in the SAPS.
Mkwanazi’s July 2025 press conference was the first metaphorical truth grenade lobbed into the lake of corruption. Nkosi has washed out in one of the ripples. Who and what else swims in the dark streams? Sergeant Nkosi might just tell. DM