The toxic web of stolen cocaine,

Parliament's hearing on the Mkhwanazi allegations delves into a R200-million drug haul and the killings of rapper AKA and two DJs - all against a backdrop of bad blood at the highest levels of policing.

- By Caryn Dolley

Several celebrity murders and a R200-million drug consignment stolen from a police building during a power cut now connect different parts of South Africa's seismic law enforcement scandal.

This week, suspended deputy national commissioner of crime detection Lieutenant General Shadrack Sibiya told Parliament how bad blood developed between him and his colleague, KwaZulu-Natal police boss Lieutenant General Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi.

Sibiya alleged this happened because of a ministerial request related to arrests for the 2023 murder of rapper Kiernan Forbes, better known as AKA.

"He was fuming, he was very angry," Sibiya said of Mkhwanazi.

Mkhwanazi, meanwhile, has separately explained the strategy behind the arrests for the Forbes murder: suspects were kept in custody on different charges before the overall case related to the killing was solidified.

Mkhwanazi has provided details about other killings in the music industry and how a R200-million drug consignment, stolen from an unguarded Hawks building in KwaZulu-Natal, is allegedly linked to the murders of DJs.

"The picture we're going to see when the matters get to court is that this one thought he's clever by stealing [that] one's drugs and he start[ed] selling [it] and [that] one then killed him," Mkhwanazi said last week.

All this has emerged during Parliament's ad hoc committee hearings into accusations he made during a press conference in July. His claims have rocked South Africa's policing arena.

Divided policing

The parliamentary hearings started about two weeks ago and are running parallel to the Madlanga Commission of Inquiry, which is investigating Mkhwanazi's accusations as well.