‘There is no Big Five: Mogotsi tells commission his actions were part of state-backed crime intelligence operation

Controversial businessman Brown Mogotsi, who has been fingered for meddling in police investigations and affairs and is accused of being an associate of suspended police minister Senzo Mchunu, has disputed Lt-Gen Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi’s testimony before the commission, insisting that the assumptions and conclusions drawn about him were based on incomplete information.

Mogotsi said Mkhwanazi could not have known that, at all material times, he was operating as an agent on behalf of the state, with specific instructions to investigate him and businessman Vusimuzi Cat Matlala.

According to Mogotsi, the perceptions Mkhwanazi referred to in his evidence were in fact intentional and part of a strategy designed to gain his trust and move closer to him to probe alleged links with the CIA.

“Mkhwanazi could not and did not know that at all relevant times I was a contact agent acting on behalf of the state with tasks, orders to investigate both Mkwanezi and Matlala. The perception and assumptions that Mkhwanazi alluded to in his evidence with reference to me is exactly the outcome and the perception that I wanted to obtain and to create in order entirely to gain his trust and to get closer to him to investigate his ties with the CIA,” he said.

Mogotsi claimed that at all relevant times, his handlers had full knowledge and were kept apprised of his conduct and strategy, and not only where Mkhwanezi was concerned.

“I was privy to sensitive information regarding the police and crime intelligence, not because I had a dubious relationship with any senior police officer or persons in the public office, but due to my involvement as a contact agent for crime intelligence and through my vast network of informers and sources,” he said.

Mkhwanazi has testified that he was of the impression that someone within SAPS was feeding Mogotsi sensitive information. This is after he said he had shared confidential crime intelligence documents with him.

Mogotsi denied that there was a criminal cartel called “Big Five”.

Earlier, Mgotsi told the commission that Mkhwanazi and Zulu King Misuzulu kaZwelithini worked for the CIA.

In his investigations on Matlala, Mogotsi alleged that in April 2025 he travelled to KwaZulu-Natal after Matlala notified him he was going to meet someone “who would solve all his problems” relating to the R360m tender his company had received from SAPS.

He allegedly positioned himself in Durban and relied on an Uber driver he described as a longstanding informant to monitor Matlala’s arrival at King Shaka International Airport.

He said he did not know who Matlala met during that visit. Months later, he said, Matlala phoned him from prison and revealed he had gone to the home of Mkhwanazi, claiming he had given him money.

“He said I went to see General Mkhwanazi’s house and I also gave him something. He was talking about money,” Mogotsi said.

Mogotsi further testified that following Mkhwanazi’s July media briefing in which Mkhwanazi referred to him by name, he continued investigating him.

He claimed his handler was aware of but disapproved of this conduct.

He told the commission that in August 2025 he contacted the late ambassador and former police minister Nathi Mthethwa for clarity on why Mkhwanazi had been removed as acting national commissioner in 2012.

Mogotsi said he raised concerns that Mkhwanazi was “a CIA operative,” information he said came from a source. According to him, Mthethwa said he shared the suspicion and directed him to travel to Kenya to meet a contact with knowledge of alleged CIA activity in South Africa.

He said Mthethwa provided the name and WhatsApp number of the Kenyan contact. He travelled to Nairobi on September 10 this year and returned two days later.

Mogotsi told the commission that the agent confirmed the possibility of his information obtained from his sources being correct: that Mkhwanazi was a CIA agent.

While he conceded that the trip was futile, he claimed it cost him R15,000, which he said he did not claim back.

When the commission pointed out that it was strange that he did not claim back his money, Mogotsi said it was not for the first time and claimed to be patriotic and putting the country first.

On September 14, Mogotsi said he spoke to Mthethwa, giving him an update on his Kenya trip.

“Mthethwa confirmed that he was prepared to testify before the commission in confirmation of the fact that Lt-Gen Mkhwanazi had been removed from office by Mthethwa for various reasons, one of which was the suspicion of him being a CIA agent,” he said.

Mthethwa died on September 30 in an alleged suicide in Paris.

When shown a WhatsApp text in which he seemingly told Matlala that he would connect him to Mchunu, Mogotsi denied being the author of the text.

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