Police found R385,175 in cash stashed in a safe when they raided the house of Sgt Fannie Nkosi.
Nkosi confirmed on Monday at the Madlanga commission that when police raided his home in October last year, when they were looking for a bank card belonging to Vusimusi “Cat” Matlala, they found the money.
Evidence leader advocate Matthew Chaskalson asked Nkosi if he still stood by the submission that R5,175 of the amount was his and R380,000 belonged to his brother and that it was money from the purchase of his car.
Nkosi said he did.
Nkosi is alleged to be among those who tipped off Matlala when a Gauteng counterintelligence team raided his home in December 2024 in relation to the kidnapping of his friend Jerry Boshoga.
Evidence in the form of call records extracted from Nkosi’s phone shows that when police arrived at Matlala’s home, Matlala was on a call with Nkosi at the time.
However, Nkosi denied that he tipped Matlala off about the raid.
Explaining the calls, he said that on about December 4 or 5 2024, a Capt Ramangwa told him that they needed to interview Matlala on the Boshoga matter.
“That is when I communicated with Cat: ‘Morena, you are wanted in our office. You need to be interviewed,’ and I said, ‘Come in, you need to be interviewed’,” he said.
He added that on December 6 he contacted Matlala to let him know that there was a scheduling crisis, and Matlala told him to put the phone down as there were officers in his house. Nkosi said he did not know that the Gauteng counterintelligence team was also investigating Boshoga’s disappearance at the same time as his office.
“Most of them are from KwaZulu-Natal and I don’t know anyone from there except [provincial police commissioner] Gen [Nhlanhla] Mkhwanazi.”
Chaskalson asked Nkosi if he was aware of the allegations that on the day the police raided Matlala’s home, Boshoga had been moved to alleged kidnapper Esmael Nangy’s home.
Nkosi confirmed that he was aware of the allegations.
The commission had previously heard from suspended KwaZulu-Natal Hawks head Maj-Gen Lesetja Senona that Nangy lived close to Matlala’s home.
At the same time, Nkosi also sent a message to controversial businessperson and taxi boss Joe Sibanyoni, stating that the special ops members had arrived at the address (the commission suggests he was making reference to the operation at Matlala’s home) and he was waiting for feedback.
However, he said the message was not related to that operation, as he did not know about it.
It has been alleged that Matlala and Sibanyoni did not get along and that Matlala was responsible for a hit on Sibanyoni’s home.
Nkosi is alleged to be the middleman between deputy national commissioner for crime detection Lt-Gen Shadrack Sibiya and alleged criminals.
Boshoga has been missing since November 18 2024 after attending a business meeting.
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