Focus on witnesses supporting explosive testimony

THE Madlanga Commission of Inquiry’s legal team is expected to shift its focus to witnesses who will corroborate KwaZulu-Natal Police Commissioner Lieutenant-General Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi’s explosive evidence of malfeasance in the country’s criminal justice system.

- LOYISO SIDIMBA

Mkhwanazi spent three days this week at the Brigitte Mabandla Justice College in Tshwane detailing widespread allegations of wrongdoing within the SA Police Service and some of its most senior officers, the Johannesburg and Ekurhuleni metropolitan police departments, the National Prosecuting Authority, and related institutions such as the Independent Directorate Against Corruption.

Police Minister Senzo Mchunu and two of his predecessors, Nathi Mthethwa and Bheki Cele, as well as suspended Lieutenant-General Shadrack Sibiya, the deputy national police commissioner for crime detection, among others, were also not spared during Mkhwanazi’s testimony.

In the outline of its plans, the judicial commission of inquiry into criminality, political interference, and corruption in the criminal justice system, chaired by retired Constitutional Court Justice Mbuyiseli Madlanga, is now scheduled to hear evidence from witnesses who will corroborate the allegations made by Mkhwanazi.

According to the commission, the witnesses include but are not limited to National Police Commissioner General Fannie Masemola, members of the political killings task team, detectives involved in the investigations, prosecutors, and various experts.