The powerful head of the Hawks in KwaZulu-Natal (KZN), Maj-Gen Lesetja Senona, alongside the provincial commander of serious organised crime investigations in the unit, Brig Msizi Nyuswa, has been hauled before a disciplinary hearing on allegations of kidnapping, extortion, corruption, theft, malicious damage to property, and defeating the ends of justice.
Senona and Nyuswa were charged alongside their colleagues Col Ismail Dawood, Lt-Col Deena Govender, and Capt Azile Enoch.
This follows a complaint lodged by Mozambican businessman Esmael Nangy and his brother-in-law, Stefane Da Costa Brites, against the five KZN police officers in connection with the same charges.
Da Costa Brites and Nangy, who is also a suspected kidnapper, along with Nangy’s wife, Nazia Nangy, were arrested and allegedly tortured by cops. The officers allegedly worked closely with the KZN police commissioner Lt-Gen Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi and are believed to be members of the political killings task team (PKTT). The suspects were allegedly tortured in connection with the kidnapping of KZN businessman Zakariyya Desai.
The wife of Da Costa Brites, Selma Pereira Da Costa Brites, was summoned to present herself as a witness at the hearing by Maj-Gen D Beukes. Selma was sent the summons on October 8, and instructed to attend the hearing, held at the Maupa Naga Building in Sunnyside, Pretoria, on October 22-23.
The building houses several units of the South African Police Service (SAPS), including the Presidential Protection Service and the Hawks.
The hearing stems from a complaint lodged by Nangy and Da Costa Brites in February against the police and the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development.
The duo opened a case at the Bedfordview police station, alleging kidnapping, extortion, corruption, theft, malicious damage to property and defeating the ends of justice.
In his affidavit, Nangy said: “In this complaint, I, together with the second complainant (Da Costa Brites), would like to lay a criminal charge against all the accused. Additionally, we would like to lay a criminal complaint against the accused for assaulting our
family members.
“We were arrested on 19 November 2024 and, after various abuses suffered at the hands of the police at Tactical Vision, which, as far as I can understand, is in Houghton, Johannesburg.”
Nangy and Da Costa Brites also listed Mkhwanazi as one of the suspects in their complaint. Others named include Durban Metro Police officer Mohammed Iniath; Yaseen Theba, a director of Vision Tactical North Security Services and chairman of the Muslim Association of South Africa; and Yacoob Yusuf Desai, a director of the KZN-based security company Xtreme Defence, alongside Stanger police detective constable Singh.
As the hearing was conducted by the Hawks, not SAPS, Mkhwanazi and Singh, whose names appear in the case, were not among the five officials hauled before the disciplinary hearing, as they are not employed within the Hawks unit.
This also applied to the two owners of the Tactical North and Xtreme Defence security companies.
The criminal charges that led to the disciplinary hearing of the five officers relate to allegations that on or about November 19, 2024 and January 22, 2025, Nangy and Da Costa Brites were intentionally deprived of their freedom of movement. They were forcefully taken to the premises of Vision Tactical North and later to Stanger police station, where they were allegedly assaulted.
Nazia Nangy, was also allegedly taken to Stanger police station unlawfully, where she was tortured. The cops allegedly instructed her to give them incriminating information about her husband’s involvement in Desai’s kidnapping and the businessman’s whereabouts. The police believed Esmael Nangy and her brother, Setefane Brites, among other suspects, had kidnapped Desai and demanded a R35-million ransom.
Senona was recently implicated in evidence at the Madlanga commission, where it was laid bare how he, crime expert Calvin Rafadi, and Ekurhuleni Metro Police head Julius Mkhwanazi had sought financial benefit from tenderpreneur, security boss and suspected criminal underworld general Vusimuzi “Cat” Matlala.
