The Madlanga commission has heard how detectives investigating the murder of Vereeniging engineer Armand Swart were followed and almost driven off the road by the individuals linked to a suspect in the case.
This information was revealed by Witness B on Wednesday at the Judicial Commission of Inquiry into Criminality, Political Interference, and Corruption in the Criminal Justice System.
On Wednesday, part of the proceedings at the Brigitte Mabandla Justice College in Pretoria took place behind closed doors.
In her testimony, Witness B, a detective in the SA Police Service’s (SAPS) organised crime unit, discusses her experiences looking into crimes involving criminal cartels, which are a topic of the commission’s investigations, as well as attempts to meddle with these investigations.
Advocate Thapelo Pooe, the evidence leader, led her testimony.
Witness B testified that some individuals in the courtroom were filming and taking pictures of the detectives, including herself, during the initial court appearance of the three men detained in connection with Swart’s murder on April 17, 2024.
Intimidated inside court
The men appeared at the Vereeniging Magistrate’s Court on April 19, 2024.
“The things we noted were unusual. There was a large number of supporters for the suspects. One of the people in the crowd even shouted and said, ‘KT will make this thing disappear’,” said Witness B.
“Some people in the crowd would come close to us and take pictures and videos of us. The court’s security even tried to protect us by controlling the situation and moving the people away from us.”
She claimed that following the accused’s court appearance, she and her colleagues were conducting a case debriefing outside the courthouse while a group of people outside the building observed them.
“We left the court and drove away in different cars, and some people from the crowd followed us. They even tried to drive us off the road,” said Witness B.
She went on to say that when she and her colleagues later arrived at one of the suspects’ homes, police discovered the vehicle that attempted to drive them off the road parked there.
Swart, who worked at Q Tech Engineering Company 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.
In April 2024, authorities arrested former SAPS detective Michael Pule Tau (55) along with alleged hitmen Musa Kekana (35) and Tiego Floyd Mabusela (47) for Swart’s murder.
DJ Sumbody’s murder
Katiso “KT” Molefe (61) was arrested and charged with the murder of Swart in December last year.
Kekana and Mabusela were denied bail, but Tau was granted bail and placed under house arrest in August 2024. Molefe was granted R100 000 bail in June by the Pretoria High Court.
He had earlier been denied bail by the Vereeniging Magistrate’s Court. The Pretoria High Court later granted him bail upon appeal.
Meanwhile, in July, Molefe was rearrested for the murder of club owner and musician Oupa John Sefoka, also known as DJ Sumbody.
Molefe was later granted R400 000 bail by the Johannesburg High Court on October 10 after appealing the Alexandra Magistrate’s Court decision that denied him release on bail.
The commission is chaired by retired Constitutional Court Justice Mbuyiseli Madlanga. He ruled that the commission’s hearings from Monday to Wednesday will hear testimonies from witnesses A, B, and C. They will be heard in partially in-camera hearings.
The commission continues.
