The Madlanga commission has heard how there was “interference” from the Hawks, Gauteng traffic police, and the Johannesburg Metro Police Department (JMPD) when South African Police Service (SAPS) members were arresting Katiso Molefe at his Sandhurst house in December last year.
This information was revealed by Witness A on Tuesday at the Judicial Commission of Inquiry into criminality, political interference, and corruption in the criminal justice system.
Tuesday’s proceedings at the Brigitte Mabandla Justice College in Pretoria are held partially in camera.
Witness A, who is a detective of the SAPS’ organised crime unit, is testifying about his experiences as a detective investigating crimes related to the criminal cartels that form the subject of the commission’s investigations and to the attempts that have been made to interfere with these investigations.
During his testimony led by evidence leader Adv Lee Seegels-Ncube, Witness A said on December 6 2024, police conducted an operation to arrest Molefe at his Sandhurst, Sandton house for the April 2024 murder of Vereeniging engineer Armand Swart.
IDs sought
He said during the arrest, a Johannes Makgatle, a JMPD officer, approached a police car parked outside Molefe’s house and inquired from the people in the car who they were.
The witness said the occupants of the police car told Makgatle they were police and Makgatle left.
He told the commission that Molefe told him during his arrest that he called Makgatle to find out to whom the “unmarked” car parked outside his house belonged because he was “scared”.
Witness A also said while police were inside Molefe’s house conducting his arrest and searching the house, members of the KwaZulu-Natal SAPS political killings task team, who were stationed outside the house, called him and said members of the Hawks are outside the house [as well].
He went outside to inquire what was happening, and the Hawks members told him they came to Molefe’s house after they received a complaint that bogus police officers were at Molefe’s house, Witness A said.
He told the Hawks that police officers were conducting an arrest of Molefe and that it was lawful.
Chopper on the scene
Witness A further said during the arrest, there was a helicopter hovering in the air above Molefe’s house.
He said the helicopter was from the Gauteng traffic police, and the officer flying it said he was ordered by a captain from the Hawks to go to Molefe’s house and check what was happening because “the Hawks received a complaint about bogus police at Molefe’s house”.
The presence of the JMPD, Hawks and Gauteng traffic police during Molefe’s arrest indicates that “Molefe has influence on some members of the law enforcement agencies,” Witness A said.
Swart, who worked at Q Tech Engineering Company based in Vereeniging, was shot and killed outside his workplace in Vereeniging on April 17 2024.
He was shot and killed when the alleged hitmen mistook him for another employee who is a whistleblower.
Former SAPS detective Michael Pule Tau (55) and alleged hitmen Musa Kekana (35), Tiego Floyd Mabusela (47) were arrested in April last year for Swart’s murder.
Molefe (61) was arrested and charged with the murder of Swart in December last year.
Tau, Kekana and Mabusela remain in police custody after not bringing a bail application.
Molefe was granted R100 000 bail in June on appeal by the Pretoria High Court.
Witness A is testifying at the commission’s hearings held partially in camera; he is testifying off camera from a remote location, but his voice is audible to the public.
The commission continues.
