Police officers from local police stations in Sandton, and not Hawks officers, should have been sent to the Sandhurst house of alleged drug cartel member Katiso “KT” Molefe to verify if bogus Hawks officers were there.
This information was revealed by Warrant Officer Sabelo Nkosi on Monday at the Judicial Commission of Inquiry into Criminality, Political Interference, and Corruption in the Criminal Justice System.
Nkosi was testifying in person during Monday’s proceedings at the Brigitte Mabandla Justice College in Pretoria.
Nkosi, a member of the Hawks’ tactical operations management section (Toms), was among the unit’s members who arrived at the scene on December 6 in Sandhurst, Johannesburg, when the South African Police Service (SAPS) was carrying out an operation at the residence of suspected drug cartel member Molefe.
Police were there to arrest Molefe for the April 2024 murder of Vereeniging engineer Armand Swart.
During his testimony, Nkosi said that on December 6, 2024, he received a phone call from Brigadier Lesiba Mokoena to rush to an address in Sandhurst because there were allegedly fake Hawks officers there.
Mokoena is a section head in the Toms.
Legitimacy of police operation
Nkosi said Mokoena instructed him to go to the Sandhurst address because he received information that there were people “conducting a police operation, and they say they are from the Hawks”.
He said Mokoena instructed him to verify if the officers were from the Hawks and if the police operation was legitimate.
“When I received the call, I was going to pick up Captain Barry Kruger and another colleague so that we could go to an operation in the North West. We were going to an operational briefing scheduled for 7pm. It was a life-threatening situation.
“I did not understand why Brigadier Mokoena instructed me to go to Sandhurst to verify the presence of bogus Hawks officers there, when he could have simply called the police officers at Sandton police station to handle it, especially since we needed to be in the North West.
“I was in Springs, about 60km to 70km away from the Sandhurst address, when I got the call, and there was traffic,” said Nkosi.
Nkosi said Mokoena also instructed him to put on his sirens and blue lights so that he could arrive quicker at Molefe’s house. “I did not follow that instruction because I was going to drive recklessly on the road.”
Earlier, chief provincial inspector George Raftopoulous of the Gauteng Traffic Police testified that he flew in a helicopter to Molefe’s house after receiving a call from Hawks officer Captain Barry Kruger, who requested his assistance in checking for bogus Hawks officers at the location.
Raftopoulous said he did not go there to interfere with a legitimate police operation but to verify if there were bogus cops at the house “since there have been people who regularly pose as fake traffic cops and hijack trucks”.
Nkosi and Raftopoulous’ testimony was led by the commission’s evidence leader, Advocate Lee Segeels-Ncube.
In October, 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.
Mistaken for a whistleblower
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 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), and Molefe (61) have been formally charged with Swart’s murder.
Tau, Kekana and Mabusela are currently in police custody, while Molefe was granted R100 000 bail in June by the Pretoria High Court after appealing the Vereeniging Magistrate’s Court decision that earlier denied him release on bail.
In July, Molefe was rearrested for the murder of musician and club owner Oupa John Sefoka, also known as DJ Sumbody.
Molefe was granted R400 000 bail by the Johannesburg High Court on October 10 after appealing the Alexandra Magistrate’s Court decision that denied him bail in the DJ Sumbody case.
The commission continues.
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