There was a “criminal enterprise” operating in the Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Police Department (EMPD), its former deputy police chief Revo Spies said this week at the Madlanga commission.
Last week the commission heard about how a senior EMPD officer, Brig Julius Mkhwanazi, had registered vehicles belonging to alleged cartel leader Vusimuzi “Cat” Matlala’s security companies as belonging to the City of Ekurhuleni and of letters, addressed to “to whom it may concern”, that these vehicles were working with the EMPD.
The commission heard that Matlala’s security company, Cat VIP Security, had unlawfully been brought in to secure the State of the City event in March 2022.
This week, it was claimed that a group of officers reporting to Mkhwanazi were suspected of serious crimes — including murder, robbery, kidnapping and extortion. Yet to date, they had not been prosecuted or subjected to internal disciplinary processes. Efforts to hold Mkhwanazi to account were blocked by city manager Imogen Mashazi, the commission heard.
“My firm belief was that this is a criminal enterprise within the municipal police. It is a core group of officers, specifically within the Specialised Services [the division that was headed by Mkhwanazi], that are involved in serious crimes,” Spies said on Tuesday.
On Monday, Spies listed seven criminal cases allegedly involving Mkhwanazi and several officers who reported to him. One was a murder that occurred in April 2022, in which a group of officers and civilians are alleged to have tortured a person, using a method called “tubing”, and eventually killing him.
“From the scene, they called Brig Mkhwanazi after it took place. And Brig Mkhwanazi arrived on the scene in a white Golf. And he then ... proceeded to direct them how to clean the scene,” said Spies.
He said one of the people involved had turned state witness. Yet, despite witnesses and a body, the case had not proceeded to trial.
“Here we are, 2025, and nothing has yet happened. So none of those officers has been charged that we know of,” he said.
There is even a nickname that we used to use for the City. It is not the City of Ekurhuleni, it is ‘Kemashli’, which is the abbreviation for Kemi Behari, Imogen Mashazi and Linda Gxasheka.
— Revo Spies, former EMPD deputy police chief
In another case, three officers — Adrian McKenzie, Bafana Twala and Kesha-Lee Stals — were arrested and charged. But the case had since been withdrawn from the court roll because the complainant “cannot be found”, said Spies.
In another incident, involving theft of copper, an informant in the case, Jaco Hanekom, was killed in a drive-by shooting the same day Stals, McKenzie and Twala were released on bail.
Spies said the police said it was a hijacking that went wrong, “but it looked to me, and everyone, it looked like a hit”. In this case, too, there has been no prosecution. “There is nothing, even internally, there is nothing that has happened with that matter,” said Spies.
Asked why internal disciplinary steps were not taken, Spies said Mkhwanazi and these officers were “very seriously protected” by Mashazi, head of legal Kemi Behari and head of human resources Linda Gxasheka.
“There is even a nickname that we used to use for the city. It is not the City of Ekurhuleni, it is ‘Kemashli’, which is the abbreviation for Kemi Behari, Imogen Mashazi and Linda Gxasheka,” said Spies.
On Tuesday afternoon and Wednesday, Xolani Nciza, former divisional head of employee relations at the City, described just how far this protection went.
He said Mashazi had initially been “supportive” when told that there would be an investigation into Mkhwanazi. But when a disciplinary tribunal was established, she intervened to put a stop to it, he said.
A manager in Nciza’s office had contacted Mkhwanazi to serve the charge sheet on him, said Nciza. But Mkhwanazi “informed him that he is not going to come, he is not going to meet with him, and he is not going to accept the charge sheet.
“And the reason … was because he, Brig Mkhwanazi, had instructions from Dr Mashazi, the city manager, as well as Ms Gxasheka, not to accept the charge sheet,” he said.
The manager was then immediately called by Gxasheka’s personal assistant “who informed him that Ms Gxasheka has instructed that he must not even attempt to serve that charge sheet on Brig Mkhwanazi”, he said.
Earlier, when Nciza had wanted to extend Mkhwanazi’s suspension, Mashazi had also put a stop to this — an “abuse of authority and power in the extreme”, he said.
When he sought to discuss the issue with Gxasheka, who had the authority over suspension, she had said: “Xolani, this lady [Mashazi] has shouted at me. I don’t want to be further shouted at. Do the letter.”
What remains unclear from the allegations is why Mashazi was protecting Mkhwanazi. Nciza said that when, initially, the decision was taken to pursue an internal misconduct investigation into Mkhwanazi, police chief Jabulani Mapiyeye wanted to inform Mashazi, even though there was no legal obligation to do so.
He “was concerned that there is a particular proximity that he had noticed, and everybody knew, between Mkhwanazi and Mashazi, and he did not want to have a situation wherein there would be a backlash from Dr Mashazi,” said Nciza.
Commissioner Sesi Baloyi SC asked what the basis was for this proximity: “Was it just close working colleagues? Are they family?” she asked. Nciza said he did not know, but it was not a proximity that arose from their work context. Mashazi was more senior in the municipal hierarchy to Mkhwanazi. They did not work closely together.
On Wednesday, the commission’s chairperson, retired justice Mbuyiseli Madlanga, again asked why Mashazi was so “invested” in Mkhwanazi. Nciza reiterated that it was not a proximity that arose from a working relationship, but the way Mashazi had protected Mkhwanazi was “unprecedented”.
He could only “opine” that her conduct was “informed by things that [were] extra-organisational … things that are beyond organisational arrangements”.
He said in his 20 years in employee relations at the Ekurhuleni municipality, he had never “seen such overreach by a municipal manager before”. Mkhwanazi was “supposed to be disciplined and potentially dismissed — in June. In December, that person gets promoted. By whom? By the person that stopped the discipline”, he said.
He added that the disciplinary charges were halted on June 20. Then, “two weeks down the line, a report gets served that seeks to give advocate Kemi Behari and Linda Gxasheka a R600,000 increase. That report does not provide any basis why such increases must be effected.”
He said he could only suggest that the increase was to say “thank you, you are aligning yourself to … what I want as the city manager. My person is not to be touched. And you’ve ensured that my person is not touched. Here is an increase”. However, in Gxasheka’s case, Nciza’s view was that she protected Mkhwanazi “out of fear” of Mashazi.
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