Illustrative image (from left): Katiso ‘KT’ Molefe. (Photo: Gallo Images / Lubabalo Lesolle) | Hawks Captain Barry Kruger. (Photo: Facebook) | Lieutenant General Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi. (Photo: Phando Jikelo / RSA Parliament) The impact of two parallel hearings investigating accusations that state officials and politicians are colluding with a criminal cartel is causing increasing distrust among South Africa’s police officers.
Based on information from various policing sources, Daily Maverick understands that revelations from the hearings, paired with related investigations into officers, are creating extreme distrust and sparking concerns about crimes that may be covered up.
“They’re going to try and sweep this thing under the carpet,” is how an officer, who spoke on condition of anonymity, recently described an investigation into a colleague.
/file/attachments/orphans/MariusvMervwe_987828.png "Witness Marius van der Merwe. (Photo: X)")
Aside from concerns about physical safety – Marius van der Merwe, a witness at one of the hearings, was murdered last year – there are also fears about disinformation that can be used in smear campaigns to tarnish certain officers.
While officers acknowledge that ventilating accusations is necessary, they say they are working amid a flurry of clashing suspicions.
“Who do you trust in a situation like this?” one asked.
Concerns and contradictions
Two main contradictory narratives have already emerged from the parallel hearings – the Madlanga Commission of Inquiry and Parliament’s ad hoc committee.
The contrasting stances are casting doubt on some of the country’s police leaders, including KwaZulu-Natal police boss Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi, whose accusations last year sparked the parallel inquiries.
Both hearings are investigating Mkhwanazi’s allegations that a drug cartel known as the Big Five has infiltrated the criminal justice system, politics and private security.
The two main narratives that have emerged from the collective proceedings are that he is an honest whistleblower acting in the interests of national security, or that he is a crook pretending to be a whistleblower while actually covering up crime, including massive looting of the Crime Intelligence unit’s secret fund.
Mkhwanazi’s accusations, through the parallel hearings, have led to other suspected crimes, cover-ups and collusion involving state officials.
Together, this now forms democratic South Africa’s biggest law enforcement scandal.
Multiple investigations
Several investigations have been sparked by the parallel hearings.
Earlier this year, in January, President Cyril Ramaphosa ordered Police Minister Firoz Cachalia and National Police Commissioner Fannie Masemola to establish a special task team to urgently investigate several officers implicated in matters that have come before the Madlanga Commission.
Those referred for investigation include five police officers and nine current or former Ekurhuleni metro officials
Daily Maverick has established that among the other probes being conducted, one is aimed at Hawks captain Barry Kruger, a previous Madlanga Commission witness.
In September last year, a month before he was called to testify before the commission, police apparently responded to an issue at his Gauteng home.
This culminated in an investigation which the Hawks is now handling – the very unit Kruger works for.
‘Internal police processes’
Daily Maverick understands that the discovery of around 12 unlicensed firearms may have prompted – or form part of – the investigation, but this could not be officially confirmed.
About two weeks ago, Kruger briefly spoke to Daily Maverick and acknowledged something had happened in September last year.
Asked if 12 unlicensed firearms had been found inside his home, he said that “the information is incorrect” and that he was still busy with internal policing processes – presumably disciplinary processes.
Kruger declined to say anything further.
On Monday, 23 February 2026, Daily Maverick obtained a case number for the matter and sent this to the Hawks, asking if unlicenced firearms had been found at Kruger’s home in September.
Hawks probe confirmed
Hawks spokesperson Colonel Katlego Mogale responded: “I can confirm that the matter is now with the [Hawks] for further investigation and details thereof cannot be discussed in the public domain.
“The disciplinary matters remain an issue between the employer and employees.”
This saga fits into broader concerns among some police officers in Gauteng and the Western Cape – where the Big Five cartel allegedly operates – about untrustworthy colleagues and how some may be accessing firearms for underhanded reasons.
(There have previously been investigations into how police officers in Gauteng were getting firearm licences for suspects in the Western Cape.)
[WATCH] Captain Barry Kruger takes the Madlanga Commission through the events around the arrest of Katiso “KT” Molefe on 6 December 2024. He explains how he became involved in the operation, adding that he was on duty on the day in question. pic.twitter.com/2vGB6VOzpx
— SABC News (@SABCNews) October 29, 2025
Kruger is a member of the Hawks Tactical Operations and Monitoring Section.
He testified at the Madlanga Commission in October last year – a month after the apparent police operation at his home – about his presence at a takedown targeting Katiso “KT” Molefe in December 2024.
The takedown was conducted by members of the Gauteng Counterintelligence Operations Unit with support from some members of the KwaZulu-Natal political killings task team (PKTT).
/file/dailymaverick/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/ED_565541.jpg "Katiso ‘KT’ Molefe. (Photo: Gallo Images / News24 / Rosetta Msimango)")
It emerged previously that the Gauteng team was conducting investigations that had been vulnerable to infiltration by corrupt colleagues.
As for the PKTT, sidelined police minister Senzo Mchunu controversially ordered its disbandment on the last day of 2024, a move he said he carried out in good faith.
However, Mkhwanazi had alleged that certain crooks were under the impression that the disbandment (which never went ahead) would have scuppered investigations into them.
Mkhwanazi said this was incorrect thinking because the Gauteng counterintelligence team, not the PKTT, was conducting the investigations that the crooks were apparently concerned about.
Molefe raid controversy
This Gauteng team of officers had raided Molefe’s Sandhurst home in December 2024 in connection with crimes, including a murder that happened months earlier.
In April 2024, engineer Armand Swart was shot in Vereeniging after the company he worked for unearthed corruption related to Transnet contracts.
The State subsequently alleged that forensic evidence linked to high-calibre rifles tied the Swart murder to other crimes, including the killing of Oupa Sefoka, better known as DJ Sumbody, who was fatally shot in November 2022 in Woodmead, Johannesburg.
/file/dailymaverick/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/04-DJ-Sumbody-and-Wolter-Sbusiso.jpg "DJ Sumbody (centre). (Photo: Supplied)")
As for Kruger, when he had testified before the Madlanga Commission in October, he had appeared nervous.
He detailed why he had been to Molefe’s home in December 2024 (in the run-up to the PKTT disbandment debacle).
Kruger had told the commission that a police section head, Hawks Brigadier Lesiba Mokoena, deployed him to check whether Hawks officers were involved in the raid on Molefe’s home, and the legitimacy of that operation.
On the way to Molefe’s home, he heard from others that the operation was legitimate, but he told the commission that he felt he needed to go there himself to ensure that this was indeed the case.
When arriving at the scene, Kruger said he had felt unsure about the officers already there, who turned out to be from the Gauteng Counterintelligence Operations Unit (and bolstered by the PKTT).
Kruger’s presence at the scene ultimately left some of those officers believing that the Hawks were interfering with Molefe’s arrest.
Molefe and a fellow crime accused, Vusimuzi “Cat” Matlala, have been accused of being members of the Big Five cartel, although they have not been formally charged over this.
Peripheral police action
Kruger aside, other witnesses who testified before the Madlanga Commission and Parliament’s ad hoc committee have been the focus of police action.
In October last year, suspended Deputy National Commissioner of Crime Detection Shadrack Sibiya’s home was raided in Gauteng. Electronic items were seized in an operation that led to Sibiya declaring that he was “under siege”.
Sibiya had been accused of dodgy dealings related to PKTT dockets, but denied wrongdoing.
/file/attachments/orphans/ED_596507_746842.jpg "Shadrack Sibiya, the suspended SAPS deputy national commissioner of crime detection, testifies at the Madlanga Commission on 18 February 2026. (Photo: Gallo Images / Frennie Shivambu)")
He has since been a witness at both the parliamentary ad hoc committee and the Madlanga Commission.
The evening before Sibiya’s home was raided in October last year, Cedrick Nkabinde, who had been Mchunu’s chief of staff, told journalists that officers wearing balaclavas and carrying high-calibre rifles had also searched his flat.
Nkabinde has been a witness at the parliamentary ad hoc committee.
The same month that Sibiya and Nkabinde’s homes were targeted, police raided the business premises of ANC-aligned businessman Brown Mogotsi in Mahikeng.
Mogotsi has been a witness at the Madlanga Commission and the parliamentary ad hoc committee.
/file/attachments/orphans/ED_586731_251253.jpg "Brown Mogotsi testifies at the Madlanga Commission of Inquiry on 20 November 2025. (Photo: Gallo Images / Frennie Shivambu)")
He was accused of acting as an intermediary between Mchunu and Matlala, but has countered that he was actually a Crime Intelligence agent.
Mchunu previously confirmed knowing Mogotsi, but said he knew nothing of certain communications between Mogotsi and Matlala.
Factions and ‘much more’
The two main narratives that have emerged from the Madlanga Commission and the parliamentary ad hoc committee appear to reflect two main factions in law enforcement.
There are those who support Mkhwanazi (and his assertion that the Big Five cartel has infiltrated the criminal justice system). On the other side are those who purportedly believe the KZN police commissioner has a nefarious agenda and is misleading the public (to divert focus from Crime Intelligence slush fund looting).
/file/dailymaverick/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/ED_585952.jpg "Cedrick Nkabinde, sidelined police minister Senzo Mchunu’s former chief of staff, testifies at the parliamentary ad hoc committee inquiry on 13 November 2025. (Photo: Gallo Images / Brenton Geach)")
The police raids – on Sibiya, Nkabinde and Mogotsi – have targeted those against whom Mkhwanazi has made allegations, suggesting that they are part of the opposing group.
Sibiya, for example, when previously testifying in Parliament, said: “General Mkhwanazi is playing the country and he’s playing a mind game [with] the country.”
Investigations into other police officers, such as that ordered by Ramaphosa in January, will probably see more law enforcers flinging accusations at one another.
Sources in policing have been unanimous in telling Daily Maverick what one concisely summed up: “Much more is still going to come out.”
It is against this turbulence, adding to distrust and concerns among them, that police officers are trying to carry out their work. DM