I smoked out fugitive Thabo Bester - Brown Mogotsi

Businessman accused of ties to criminal syndicate infiltrating police reveals his undercover status and involvement in notorious fugitive's arrest

- By Setumo Stone

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.