Former Hawks boss Lieutenant-General Godfrey Lebeya has distanced himself from any suggestion of a strained relationship with KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) police commissioner, Lieutenant-General Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi.
According to Lebeya, their relationship was professional, consistently cordial and free of conflict.
Testifying before the Madlanga Commission of Inquiry on Thursday, Lebeya said that he had never experienced difficulties in dealing with Mkhwanazi and described their communication as straightforward.
He said this while addressing Mkhwanazi’s allegations about an alleged attempt to interfere in the December 2024 arrest of alleged crime boss Katiso ‘KT’ Molefe at his Sandton home. The allegations have placed Lebeya at the centre of a disputed episode involving senior police officers.
READ: How cops ‘protected’ Katiso Molefe: 3 envelopes, helicopter, food and clothing in jail
“Throughout my professional interactions, I have never experienced any difficulties or issues in my relationship with Lieutenant General Mkhwanazi,” Lebeya said.
“Our communication has always been straightforward and without conflict, allowing for effective collaboration and mutual understanding in all matters pertaining to our official duties.”
Lebeya went further, recalling that he had publicly praised Mkhwanazi at a KwaZulu-Natal Hawks Annual Excellence Awards ceremony for his forthright approach.
“At the KwaZulu-Natal Hawks Annual Excellence Awards ceremony, I commended him for saying a spade when he refers to a spade,” he said.
In July 2025, Mkhwanazi described the deployment of Hawks members to the scene as an attempt to interrupt the operation.
“These activities included a dispatching of members of the South African Police Service, under the command of a senior manager at the head office to go and interrupt the operation that was unfolding,” Mkhwanazi said.
“Fortunately, when they arrived there, the members realised that it is indeed a police operation, so they allowed the members to carry out their operation without disturbance.”
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Lebeya argues that Mkhwanazi’s own description does not necessarily support an allegation that the team was dispatched to unlawfully disrupt the arrest.
Instead, he says, the fact that the members allegedly recognised the operation as legitimate and allowed it to continue indicates that the purpose of the deployment was to establish whether the people at the scene were genuine police officers.
The dispute is complicated by the testimony of Witness A, a protected Gauteng organised-crime investigator, who gave a substantially different account to the commission.
Witness A testified that Hawks members arrived at Molefe’s property during the arrest, demanded information about the operation and said they had been sent by Lebeya. He described the intervention as an attempted disruption of a legitimate operation.
Witness B also testified that the Hawks’ intervention contributed to what she regarded as a high level of interference during Molefe’s arrest.
But Lebeya said Mkhwanazi himself has not repeated the allegation that the Hawks team was dispatched to interrupt the operation in his later written or oral evidence before the commission and Parliament (ad-hoc committee).
“I have noted that he has not repeated this allegation in his statement or oral testimony in both at the commission or at ad hoc committee in Parliament,” Lebeya said.
“I take that he has effectively withdrawn the allegations of interruption. An insinuation that all these layers of police leadership were to execute an unlawful instruction by commissioned officers is highly irresponsible,” he said.
- Former Hawks boss Lieutenant-General Godfrey Lebeya stated that his relationship with KwaZulu-Natal police commissioner Lieutenant-General Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi was professional, cordial, and free of conflict.
- Lebeya denied allegations of attempting to interfere with the December 2024 arrest of alleged crime boss Katiso 'KT' Molefe at his Sandton home.
- Mkhwanazi claimed that Hawks members were dispatched to interrupt the arrest operation, but allowed it to continue upon recognizing it as legitimate.
- Witness A testified that Hawks members demanded information about the operation and that the intervention was an attempted disruption sent by Lebeya, while Witness B said there was a high level of interference during the arrest.
- Lebeya noted that Mkhwanazi has not repeated the interruption allegation in his subsequent written or oral evidence before the commission and Parliament, suggesting a withdrawal of the claim.
