The bold claim by controversial police fixer Brown Mogotsi that KZN police chief Lt-Gen Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi and AmaZulu King Misuzulu KaZwelithini are Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) spies collapsed like the proverbial house of cards.
Pressed on details surrounding his claims, Mogotsi turned around and twisted his own story. He buckled under pressure from members of parliament’s Ad Hoc committee tasked with investigating claims of corruption, capture, and political interference in the criminal justice system.
Blames king’s disgruntled faction
Mogotsi first distanced himself from being the person who claimed Mkhwanazi and King Misuzulu were working for the most powerful intelligence agency in the world.
He instead reneged, saying the claim was in fact made by a faction of the AmaZulu royal family opposed to Misuzulu’s confirmation as the legitimate King of the nation.
According to Mogotsi, the faction backing Prince Simakade, which insists he is the legitimate heir to the throne, is the one that made the allegation.
“As I have alluded, the case that was opened in Midrand by the people of the Prince (Simakade), the suspicion emanated from what they have written insofar as the Richard Bay Terminal is concerned,” said Mogotsi.
“According to that statement, they (Mkhwanazi and Misuzulu) are being activated to serve [CIA] interests. The case was opened, and according to them (the Simakade faction), Mkhwanazi was sending a lot of police to harass them.”
Mogotsi said most of the coal from the terminal was being sent to Israel, the extension of the US, because of Mkwanazi and Misuzulu. He added that Simakade was blocked because he favoured redirecting the same coal to China.
Questionable trip to Kenya
But Mogotsi appears to have believed these claims such that he travelled from South Africa all the way to Kenya. He was trying to prove that Mkhwanazi and Misuzulu were indeed linked to the CIA.
Pressed on this trip, who he travelled with and who paid, his story went from bad to worse.
He initially claimed to have funded the trip himself. However, he turned around when pressed by committee member Julius Malema. He said his colleagues at crime intelligence had contributed towards the purchase of the flight tickets.
Pushed to the corner on this, he then changed his story. He now said there was “a person” who paid, but he refused to divulge the name. He said that would place the life of the person in danger.
Buckling under pressure, he then revealed new information. He put an amount of R5,000 as the cost of the flight ticket. And he added that he was travelling with someone, whose name he also refused to divulge.
Mysterious person paid for trip
“We now know that he (Mogotsi) has not financed that trip himself, as he was claiming before. Even saying he did via EFT. Someone else paid.
“We now know he was not alone in that trip; he was with someone else. And the name of the person shall be provided to the secretary of the committee,” said Malema. He was summarising Mogotsi’s disastrous U-turn. Mogotsi casually admitted to this, saying, “Ntate Malema wa nkgatelela (Mr Malema, you are now pinning me down).”
Malema pressed on: “We now know someone gave you R5, 000. Now there is even an amount.”
Mogotsi has since been asked to provide the committee proof of payment for the Kenya trip. This was the trip during which he went to meet someone who was going to confirm Mkhwanazi and Misuzulu’s CIA links. As well as the names of the people who paid, and the “other person” he allegedly travelled with.
This is information that is most likely non-existent given his many versions of the facts around the trip, is an eventuality that is bound to have him pursued for perjury.
