The possible targeting of journalist Marianne Thamm by state intelligence highlights a serious threat to press freedom and democratic accountability in South Africa. Here is the story.
Reporting by: Marianne Thamm
Filmed by: Joel Seboa
Edited by: Malibongwe Tyilo
Produced by: Emilie Gambade
Sub-edited by: Kevin Flynn
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Prima facie, the Latin for ‘on the face of it’, is precisely what evidence leaders are calling the mountain of chat messages pulled from the confiscated devices of Deputy Crime Intelligence head Feroz Khan, now surfacing at the Madlanga Commission of Inquiry.
At the time of filming the video, Khan was in hospital, recovering from surgery for gunshot wounds sustained on the 28th of June, the day before he was due to testify. Since then, his family issued a statement to say that he had been discharged. But even as he lied in hospital, Madlanga lawyers had been performing a forensic dissection of his communications. What they uncovered, they allege, is a sprawling empire: luxury properties scattered across the country, and at least 30 high-end vehicles parked snugly in garages. There’s also a farm and a Rolex Submariner, worth around R200,000 - allegedly handed to Khan by VAT fraudster Feroze Essay, in exchange for inside tender information.
Khan himself had declared R3 million in income from his own company, Spares Oasis, between 2021 and 2026, double his salary as a senior police officer, evidence leader advocate Adila Hassim noted this week.
So how did we get to this point?
Khan was arrested alongside Gauteng Hawks head, Major General Ebrahim Kadwa and businessman Tariq Downes in May 2026
The arrests followed a 2021 incident at OR Tambo International Airport where Downes was found carrying 75.9g of unwrought gold. Khan and Ebrahim allegedly saw to it that he was relieved from custody without having good reason to do so. Khan’s devices were all seized during the raid on his luxury Houghton apartment which is how his communications have now been secured by law enforcement.
These show a web of links to persons of interest including EFF leader, Julius Malama, Carnilinx tobacco manufacturer Mohammadh “Mo” Sayed, his director Adriano Mazzotti, to name just a few.
The public only got access to these chats and documents because Khan tried to have them kept secret and asked for the inquiry to be held in camera, a legal strategy that backfired.
But Khan did not bargain on the legal agility of the Madlanga team of evidence leaders and investigators who pounced on the material like honey badgers around a sweet treat. As the clock ticked for this vital commission to conclude its work, it found itself with a treasure trove of evidence.
As part of the evidence, the Madlanga Commission also heard that my Cape Town home was burgled two months after a Crime Intelligence officer allegedly messaged a colleague, Feroz Khan, saying: “Counter needs to be activated on this journo.”
Here is what happened: on Friday the 12th of March, I celebrated my birthday. On Saturday night the 13th, someone wearing gloves broke into my house.
Among other things, they took my work computer, the computer I used to investigate corruption inside South Africa’s police service. They also took another laptop with a Daily Maverick sticker on it.
For months, journalists covering the battle inside the SAPS Crime Intelligence division knew we might have been targeted. Journalists on the police and gangs beat in this country have all been threatened, one way or another. Police Lieutenant-Colonel Charl Kinnear was killed while investigating colleagues who let a criminal underworld thrive on the Cape Flats and beyond.
Inside Crime Intelligence, the infighting had been brutal. We – my colleague Caryn Dolley especially – reported on this because it matters, and because ordinary police officers pay the price for the corruption at the top. They are often underpaid, underequipped, and their lives are on the line every day, while a small group fights for control of a division with access to almost limitless funds and manpower.
Which brings me back to my house.
On 12 March 2021, an anonymous author sent an alleged “information note” - which Daily Maverick had seen - to acting Divisional Commissioner of Crime Intelligence Yolisa Mokgabudi and head of Counter Intelligence Major-General Feroz Khan, claiming that Daily Maverick and I were in possession of classified material.
The next night, my house was burgled.
To this day, I still can’t prove the two events are connected. And yet - now, at the Madlanga Commission, five years later, Evidence leader, advocate Adila Hassim, said that while police had essentially closed the burglary case, “the sequencing” and “the timing” of the messages and the break-in mean that further investigation is warranted.
While there was no conclusive link between the messages and the burglary, Hassim emphasised that Crime Intelligence is “not a mechanism for monitoring and intimidating anyone, including journalists”. DM