Police Minister Senzo Mchunu’s alleged associate Brown Mogotsi has let the cat out of the bag, claiming that he is an undercover police operative and was crucially involved in the dramatic arrest of South Africa’s most notorious fugitive, Thabo Bester, in Tanzania.
Speaking to Sunday World amid a gag order as a witness at the looming judicial commission of inquiry into police infiltration by criminal syndicates, Mogotsi, who has no criminal record linked to organised crime, briefly boasted about his undercover exploits.
“You will be surprised. I even participated in 90% for us to arrest Thabo Bester. I’m the one who was in Tanzania,” he said, painting a picture of cloak-and-dagger operations that led to Bester and his lover, Dr Nandipha Magudumana’s arrest in 2023.
Mogotsi, whose name has become synonymous with swirling allegations of police corruption that sank Mchunu following a bombshell media briefing by KwaZulu-Natal police boss Lt-Gen Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi, jetted in and out of Mozambique this week, seemingly as part of his covert assignments.
Upon his return, Mogotsi refrained from commenting on the explosive claims, citing his obligation to maintain confidentiality. He declined to comment on the allegations of infiltrating the SAPS for nefarious purposes, stating that he was scheduled to testify before the judicial commission of inquiry, which President Cyril Ramaphosa announced last Sunday, to scrutinise Mkhwanazi’s chilling allegations implicating politicians, judges and prosecutors.
In a recent interview with the SABC, Mogotsi confirmed that he was not a police officer. “No, I’m not a police officer. I’ve been around, my sister. With my underground experience, or underground operations, I’ll be able to share on the right platform who Brown
Mogotsi really is.”
A source with proximity to some of the country’s top cops said his information was that Mogotsi got enlisted as an informant for crime intelligence in 2009.
A former senior crime intelligence operative, speaking to Sunday World, said Mogotsi’s decision to unmask himself was a strategic move. “He needs to manage the narrative about his undercover police work. If he leaves it for the commission, he’ll just be reacting and won’t get to shape his story.”
The person said informants were often recruited based on their connections to criminal syndicates and eventually became state witnesses when the targets had been nabbed.
“Under the circumstances, the fact that the informant would have a past criminal record cannot be used to discredit their testimony,” the person added.
Sunday World sources in the security cluster revealed that Mogotsi only had three criminal cases recorded with the police, none of them related to organised crime. In 2013, he was a complainant in a Sexual Offences Act case registered in Mafikeng, the provincial capital of North West.
In 2017, he was an accused in a fraud case in Free State, involving allegations of a forged cheque. In May of this year, he was a complainant in a case of assault with intent to do grievous bodily harm (GBH), registered in Mafikeng.
TimesLive reported that Mogotsi had previously been sentenced to six months for defeating the ends of justice, which expired on September 9, 2011; six months for assault GBH, expiring on November 26, 2011; and three to five years for assault GBH and reckless and negligent driving, expiring on November 30, 2016.
Within ANC circles in the North West, whispers about Mogotsi’s double life are nothing new. One well-placed source described him as a police informant who previously operated in lockstep with a former Mafikeng mayor turned provincial executive member. “Mogotsi’s been working both sides for years,” said the insider.
Sources said Mogotsi has taken a keen interest in the ongoing court battle questioning the legitimacy of ANC North West provincial chairperson Nono Maloyi’s 2022 election.
Some have linked him to the so-called “Revolutionary Council”, the group credited with toppling ex-premier Supra Mahumapelo, though leaders of the group were this week quick to distance themselves from him.
Mogotsi is now under intense scrutiny over alleged political interference and ties to organised crime since he was named by Mkhwanazi. Mchunu has distanced himself from Mogotsi, dismissing assertions made in Parliament by Mkhwanazi that Mogotsi was his “associate”.
However, Mkhwanazi created a stir by associating Mchunu, Mogotsi, and businessman Vusi “Cat” Matlala, whose R360-million SAPS contract was abruptly cancelled, with a mysterious syndicate purportedly comprising “senior politicians,” potentially stretching to former police minister Bheki Cele.
Mkhwanazi alleged that Mchunu disbanded the KwaZulu-Natal political killings task team to defeat the ends of justice, and that both Mogotsi and Matlala knew about the move before it happened.
Matlala, notorious for his opulent lifestyle and high-flying government deals, is currently locked up at Kgosi Mampuru’s C-Max prison, while his wife, Tsakani Matlala, is out on bail.
His co-accused, Musa Kekana and Tiego Floyd Mabusela, remain behind bars.
National Police Spokesperson Athlenda Mathe said they don’t comment on operational issues.
