The Madlanga commission of inquiry has heard how high-ranking SAPS officials and prominent businessmen are part of the “fixers” unit within the criminal cartel known as the Big Five, sometimes referred to as “The Firm”.
Testifying in camera, a detective referred to as Witness B, who worked on the murder case of Vereeniging engineer Armand Swart, outlined the Big Five and some of its structures.
She said the late notorious taxi owner Jonathan “King Mswazi” Msibi was president of the Big Five cartel, while executives and others served beneath him.
“The rest of the executive may be the ministers, if I may put it like that, who formed the Big Five. But what I can say is that this is not limited to just five people. The Big Five is not just something that is not co-ordinated; it’s more like a structure. There are lots more people that don’t have titles but they’re part of the so-called Firm,” she said.
She said that among the executives, there were different entities that would lead, including so-called hitmen.
The cartel is linked to Katiso “KT” Molefe and businessman Vusimuzi “Cat” Matlala. According to the structures outlined, Molefe is associated with drugs, tender fraud and contract killing, while Matlala is associated with drugs, kidnapping, tender fraud, extortion and contract killing.
Witness B explained that the hitmen who were arrested in the Firm were not the only ones, as they have handlers who order hits.
“It’s not limited to them. In actual fact, there’s more. That’s why they think they are the best. We can now be happy and say we have arrested the hitmen. [But] it’s not even a start in solving the problem because they can always - the hit-orderers - source other hitmen and the killings go on,” she said.
She emphasised the importance of dealing with the “hit-orderers”, the people who order the killings, because they are more problematic than just the hitmen.
“The hitmen are just pawns in their hands. That’s why it makes my heart bleed when the courts feel like there’s little that they are contributing to these crimes, when actually they are the actual problems,” Witness B said.
Furthermore, she explained that the hitmen always seek permission from their handlers before carrying out any assignment. She said that the hitmen had to confirm with Matlala before executing the attempted killing of his ex-girlfriend, actress Tebogo Thobejane. She added that as soon as Matlala gave the go-ahead, he proceeded to pay the hitmen through his daughter’s account.
From what the investigation has revealed so far, she said, the contract killers have been active since 2019.
On Wednesday, Witness B told the commission of attempts by the cold case unit to seize the active case dockets of the Swart murder case.
The commission also heard how Swart’s murder was allegedly tied to corruption at Transnet involving a tender awarded to SK Group, a company linked to Molefe’s nephew, Lucky Molefe, a Transnet buyer.
According to Witness B, SK Group’s tender win was rigged as the two competing companies were both dummy companies. She explained that the tender was manipulated, and SK Group benefited.
Investigators believe Swart was not the intended target for assassination.
TimesLIVE
Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.