Setumo Stone | Khan’s discharge shifts the balance of power in factional SAPS

The dismissal of Major General Feroz Khan threatens to transform the struggle for power between rival power centres inside the South African Police Service (SAPS) and its Crime Intelligence division into an asymmetric contest between an incumbent command structure and a displaced former insider.

Until Wednesday, Khan’s suspension constrained his operational power but did not extinguish his institutional claim. He remained deputy head of Crime Intelligence, held the rank of major-general, and had a legal route back. The SAPS’s announcement on Wednesday night that he had been deemed dismissed under disciplinary procedures removes that formal foothold.

Suspension froze Khan. Dismissal displaces him. A suspended officer occupies an ambiguous position that is outside daily command, but the chair remains his. Anyone appointed around him operates under the possibility of his return.

Dismissal changes the institutional presumption. Unless overturned, Crime Intelligence can behave as though he is not coming back. That creates room for decisions that were difficult while he remained suspended, like reallocating responsibilities, consolidating reporting lines, eventually filling his position, and reorganising units.

Khumalo rises as Khan falls

The struggle has moved from two internal poles to one dominant pole. At the top was Lieutenant General Dumisani Khumalo, the divisional commissioner. Below him was Khan, the deputy.

Their fortunes moved in opposite directions.

Khumalo was arrested in June 2025, but the case unravelled before the Madlanga Commission, chaired by Justice Mbuyiseli Madlanga. The National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) withdrew all charges on August 21, 2026.

Khan moved in the opposite direction after he was suspended, faced criminal proceedings and extensive allegations, lost an urgent Labour Court application, and was then dismissed. He has not yet given substantive evidence before Madlanga.

Thus Khumalo no longer has a formally serving deputy whose possible restoration hangs over the hierarchy. He has bureaucratic initiative.

Inside Crime Intelligence, the centre of gravity has shifted strongly towards the incumbent divisional commissioner.

What Khan loses – and what he keeps

The most important thing Khan loses is not his salary; it is institutional positioning. Suspension took away his command power. Dismissal attacks his positional and procedural power.

But it does not automatically destroy his informational or network power.

SAPS can remove his office, but not what he knows, nor his relationships, nor his capacity to litigate.

His testimony before the Madlanga Commission remains scheduled for September 28, and he must provide his outstanding statement by September 18. Khan is becoming weaker internally but potentially more dangerous externally.

ALSO READ: Feroz Khan’s labour court papers detail gunshot injuries, mental trauma

Khumalo gains something more valuable than victory, which is the freedom of manoeuvre. There is a difference between defeating somebody and being freed from the constraints of their continued presence.

Objectively, the result benefits Khumalo. After dismissal, he can reorganise around the assumption that the deputy position belongs to the institution, not to Khan. Watch who inherits Khan’s functions, like who attends meetings, receives reports, supervises units, controls operational coordination, and who is placed in an acting deputy capacity.

Those movements will reveal whether this produces genuine consolidation or whether Lieutenant General Puleng Dimpane, the acting national commissioner, installs a counterbalancing figure.

Dimpane emerges as the hinge

Dimpane, therefore, becomes more important than the Khan-Khumalo framing suggests. General Fannie Masemola, the national commissioner, has been on precautionary suspension since April, and Dimpane is exercising his functions.

This creates a triangular structure. Dimpane sits above Crime Intelligence; Khumalo controls the division; Khan is outside. The strategic question is whether Dimpane allows Khumalo to consolidate or deliberately constructs checks around him. Dimpane is now the hinge; she controls the environment in which the post-Khan structure will be rebuilt.

Masemola’s suspension complicates any straightforward Khumalo victory. The two men’s names became linked in evidence concerning an alleged “orchestrated attack” through Project Diversion. But they have emerged in radically different positions where Khumalo is inside, while Masemola remains outside.

Khumalo cannot rely upon the settled authority of the national commissioner; his immediate relationship is with Dimpane. His apparent strengthening also leaves him more exposed.

ALSO READ: How Dimpane opposed SAPS clearing Khumalo, team

IDAC’s collapse and Khan’s new incentive

But Khan now acquires a different power, which is that of the expelled insider. While he remained an SAPS officer, he had reasons to preserve institutional relationships. If dismissal survives, that calculation changes. His route back becomes litigation, not accommodation.

His incentive may shift towards placing more material before courts and the commission. The question becomes: what does Khan know that he previously had an institutional reason not to disclose?

This is where the Madlanga Commission becomes the ultimate equaliser. Khan has lost rank; the commission does not require rank.

Khumalo has regained strength; the commission does not require him to surrender it. Madlanga controls the public evidentiary record. In an institutional war, the side that wins the organisational battle can still lose the historical battle if evidence establishes misconduct.

Khan’s dismissal does not conclude the conflict; it creates parallel contests. Inside SAPS, Khumalo holds the stronger position. Outside, Khan retains capacity to challenge his removal and answer allegations under oath. Those battlefields operate by different rules.

The power map and the central paradox

This creates a dangerous period for Khumalo too. He is arguably at his strongest point, but strength creates scrutiny. The question now is: what does Khumalo do with restored power? Does Crime Intelligence change personnel? Are previous investigations reopened? Are Khan-associated officials disciplined? Those decisions will determine whether what follows is normalisation or a counter-purge.

The power map today is that Dimpane holds formal national power; Khumalo holds concentrated divisional power; Masemola holds latent power; Khan holds displaced institutional power but substantial residual power; IDAC is weakened; and Madlanga holds evidentiary power.

The central paradox is that Khan’s dismissal gives Khumalo more room inside Crime Intelligence at exactly the moment it may give Khan fewer reasons to protect it from outside. Wednesday night was not the end, but the date the conflict changed form. The first war was over control of the institution; the next is likely over what the institution was being used for.

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Setumo Stone