A decision to send Sandton police station officers to the Sandhurst house of alleged drug cartel member Katiso “KT” Molefe to verify if bogus Hawks officers are there would not serve the purpose of discreetly scanning the area.
This information was revealed by Lt-Gen Dumisani Mbotho on Monday at the Judicial Commission of Inquiry into Criminality, Political Interference, and Corruption in the Criminal Justice System.
Mbotho was testifying in person during Monday’s commission proceedings at the Brigitte Mabandla Justice College in Pretoria.
He was testifying about the deployment of Hawks officers on December 6 to the Sandhurst, Johannesburg, scene where members of the South African Police Service (SAPS) were conducting an operation at Molefe’s house.
The police were at Molefe’s Sandhurst house to arrest him for the April 2024 murder of Vereeniging engineer Armand Swart.
Instruction came from Hawks boss
Mbotho, the Hawks divisional commissioner responsible for the national priority offences operations, said that on December 6, he received a phone call from the then national head of the Hawks, Lt. Gen. Godfrey Lebeya.
“General Lebeya told me that he received a call from someone who told him that there are people at a house in Sandhurst, and those people are saying they are from the Hawks and they were sent by General Lebeya. Lebeya asked me if I am aware of a Hawks operation in Sandhurst, and I said there is none,” said Mbotho.
Mbotho said he called the different Hawks component heads, who are major generals, and asked them if there is a Hawks operation in Sandhurst, and they all answered in the negative.
He said he called Brig Lesiba Mokoena, section head of the Tactical Operation Management Section (Toms) of the Hawks, and asked him if there is a Hawks operation in Sandhurst, and Mokoena said “No”.
Request to send vehicle to Molefe’s house
“I told Mokoena to find one vehicle that is in the vicinity of Sandhurst and send it to the Sandhurst address to scan the area and check what is happening. The purpose of the vehicle was to scout the area…” said Mbotho.
Mbotho said he told Mokoena to send a vehicle to that Sandhurst address to verify if the people there are legit police officers and not impersonating the Hawks.
The commission’s chairperson, retired Constitutional Court Justice Mbuyiseli Madlanga, asked Mbotho why he did not call the Sandton police station to assist in going to the Sandhurst house to verify if the police officers there are impersonating Hawks officers.
Madlanga said the Sandton police station was closer to the Sandhurst address.
Mbotho said: “It would not have served the purpose by sending Sandton police station officers. They were going to go there in a marked vehicle, with blue lights and in police uniform.
“Them going there was not going to serve the scanning purpose. Them going there was probably going to endanger their lives. A marked police vehicle could not scan quietly in the area without anyone seeing it coming. The vehicle I asked Mokoena to send is a normal sedan that is not marked and nothing out of the ordinary…”
Toms officers went to Molefe’s house
Mokoena told the commission last week that he sent W/O Sabelo Nkosi and Capt Barry Kruger from the Toms of the Hawks to go to the Sandhurst address to verify the police officers there are legit.
Nkosi was travelling from Springs to Sandhurst, and Kruger was travelling from Pretoria North to Sandhurst.
Last month, Witnesses A and B told the commission that the Hawks, Gauteng traffic police, and Johannesburg Metro Police Department “interfered” with the SAPS members’ operation to arrest Molefe.
Mbotho said he does not know Molefe and did not send his Hawks officers to “interfere” with the police operation to arrest Molefe.
Mbotho’s testimony was led by the commission’s evidence leader Adv Lee Segeels-Ncube.
The commission continues on Tuesday at 9:30am with a new witness to take the stand.
Meanwhile, Swart, who worked at Q Tech Engineering Company based in Vereeniging, was shot and killed outside his workplace on April 17 2024.
He was killed when the alleged hitmen mistook him for another employee, who is a whistleblower.
