Hawks officials contradict each other at Madlanga Commission

Different Hawks officers testifying before the Madlanga Commission, last week and on Monday, contradicted each other’s evidence on what happened when they went to alleged cartel leader Katiso Molefe’s home when he was arrested in December.

At one point on Monday, chairperson of the commission, retired justice Mbuyiseli Madlanga, said the commissioners wanted Brig Lesiba Mokoena, who testified on Wednesday, to come back and testify again: “We absolutely want him to come back.”

Evidence leader Lee Segeels-Ncube said the evidence leaders had already contacted him for this, but he had said he would prefer not to come back until he had taken legal advice. He was not sure, at this stage, whether he was considered an implicated person by the commission, said Segeels-Ncube.

The Hawks have been accused of interfering in the “take-down” operation of Molefe by several members of the Gauteng counter-intelligence task team who were making the arrest.

The Hawks have defended themselves by saying that they had received information that the police officers who went to Molefe’s Sandhurst property claimed to be Hawks officials and were acting on the orders of former Hawks head Godfrey Lebeya. On Monday, Hawks divisional commissioner Dumisani Patrick Mbotho said the information came from a call to Lebeya.

Before Mbotho took the stand, warrant officer Sabelo Nkosi, one of the officers who rushed to the scene, told the commission that when he was there, he was approached by a person “unknown to me” who asked him if they were the “guys from the Hawks”. He asked Nkosi if he could speak to him privately, but Nkosi refused, he said. “He said ‘I am the one who called Patrick,’” said Nkosi ― an apparent reference to Mbotho.

The person introduced himself as “Mr Mthethwa”, said Nkosi, adding that he said he was related to the person who lived at the address. When Nkosi asked what his connection was with Mbotho, Mthethwa responded that they were old friends or “old bras”, said Nkosi.

However, Mbotho, who gave evidence after Nkosi, categorically denied knowing Mthethwa. “I did not receive a call from a person called Mthethwa, and the person displayed on the picture [a photo of the man alleged to be Mthethwa, taken by Nkosi at the scene, was shown to Mbotho], I’ve never seen him. I don’t know that person,” he said.

Mbotho said he was asked by Lebeya to look into the matter because Lebeya had received a call informing him of a bogus Hawks operation. However, Lebeya did not tell him who had called him, and he did not ask. At the time, he did not know it was Molefe’s address and had only found out when KZN provincial commissioner Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi addressed the media in July.

However, potentially more damaging was Nkosi’s evidence in relation to Mokoena. Mokoena had testified that he had only sent two officers to the scene ― Capt Barry Kruger and Constable de Gouveia. He said any further officers added were “beyond my instruction”.

But Nkosi testified that he had also received a call from Mokoena, to say there were people acting as “bogus cops” and that he must “rush” to a particular address in Sandton.

The number of people sent there is significant because when Capt Maxwell Wanda, of the political killings task team, testified, he said that he was disturbed by how many Hawks members had come. There have also been numerous questions from the commissioners about why so many people were necessary, if the job was simply to verify that the arrest was a legitimate police operation and why it was necessary for them to remain there for about an hour.

Nkosi testified that as soon as he arrived on the scene, he was able to identify that one of the cars outside was a police vehicle. The officers conducting the operation were also “kitted up” ― wearing SAPS-branded bulletproof vests.

He did not understand why the Hawks officials stayed there for so long, he testified. When he asked Kruger, Kruger had responded by referring to Mokoena. “We prolonged our stay there unnecessarily,” he said.

Nkosi said he was irritated and had told Kruger that Mthethwa was “the person that made us run around like fools”. He was frustrated because “we were actually there to serve the interests of this gentleman, not the interests of the police”.

He criticised Kruger for not having “the balls” to stand up to Mokoena, saying once an instruction was received, it was up to those carrying it out to decide how it was done.

During Mbotho’s evidence, commissioner Sandile Khumalo SC said it was concerning that the team stayed on the scene for so long and no-one was explaining to the commission what they were doing there once they had verified that it was a legitimate police operation.

Nkosi’s testimony supported the evidence of Kruger on Wednesday that Mokoena participated in a WhatsApp group that Kruger had set up for the operation and which included several members of the Hawks, suggesting that Mokoena must have known there were more than just two officers rushing to the scene.

When the alleged photo of Mthethwa was uploaded into the WhatsApp group, Nkosi had posted in the same group: “This is the person that called the Gen.” To this, Mokoena had responded “which one???” and he had replied.

Mokoena had testified last week that the messages posted in the group, apparently from him, must have been copied and pasted from his private interactions with Kruger. It was for this claim, and Mokoena’s persistent denial of participating in the WhatsApp group, that Madlanga appeared to want him to return to the commission.

The commission will continue on Tuesday.