Hours after a suspect was arrested in Tshepisong township, on the West Rand, Mthethwa and national police commissioner Bheki Cele accused the TV channel of being "crime kissers" who "gave [the police] the finger".
About 15 heavily armed members of the police's special crime-fighting unit, the Hawks, pounced on the suspect at about 1am yesterday.
Late last night the Hawks were hot on the heels of the other man who participated in the TV interview. The arrested man, the police said, was identified as the one who "was smoking a joint and loading the gun".
The police confirmed that the Soweto man who committed suicide on Tuesday morning, Lucky Phungula, was not one of the men who appeared on TV.
eNews has maintained all along that Phungula merely helped it to set up the interview.
The Times was present when the police nabbed the suspect after a 20-minute search that included a raid of several houses in Tshepisong.
After his arrest, the man, whose name is known to The Times, could not tell the police where the gun he cocked in the interview was, but he claimed he was paid R2,000 for the interview.
Mthethwa could not confirm yesterday that the suspect had said this, but told reporters "the criminal in question has provided police with valuable information, detailing how this saga began, who is involved, the promises made and broken, and other vital information like [about] the suicide related to this matter."
The gun remains a "mystery", he said.
Hawks boss Anwa Dramat said the man, who has spent time in jail for armed robbery, will face charges of intimidation and incitement, and other charges might arise from the investigation.
But Mthethwa insisted that the breakthrough did not mean that eNews - whose journalists have been threatened with court orders to identify sources - is off the hook.
Speaking at the same press conference, Cele criticised the free-to-air station, saying it had "sold out on South Africans and the world" in airing the interview.
"A criminal is a criminal. E.tv is clearly a crime-kisser; they have exposed themselves as such. They protect criminals at the expense of the safety of citizens," an angry Cele said.
Mthethwa added that the police had been left with no option but to pursue legal action against the broadcaster.
"We asked e.tv to co-operate. We did not jump into [issuing] the subpoena, they gave us the finger. We had no option but to enact (sic) legal action," he said.
Cele accused eNews of censoring the police: "We were interviewed by e.tv but that footage was not flighted; they said we were too 'emotional'. Clearly they had no time to co-operate with the law. They were fraternising with the criminals."
Mthethwa denied that the subpoenas were a threat to media freedom and said that media freedom was not an absolute right.
"We respect editorial independence of each media house and have no intentions of interfering. However, in instances where we believe this freedom has been abused, we have within our constitutional framework the legality to challenge such decisions," he said.
The journalist at the centre of the storm, Mpho Lakaje, was reportedly a friend of Phungula.
Lakaje has gone underground since Phungula's death.
eNews, who have thrown their support behind Lakaje and group news editor Ben Said, did not want to comment further last night.
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