Crime Intelligence head Lt-Gen Dumisani Khumalo has alleged that nearly all police members in Gauteng are working with criminal cartels.
Testifying before parliament’s ad hoc committee on Thursday, Khumalo detailed how criminal syndicates have infiltrated the justice system. The committee is investigating the extent of this infiltration after explosive claims made by KwaZulu-Natal police commissioner Lt-Gen Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi last year.
Khumalo recounted a counterintelligence operation conducted in Gauteng that uncovered the depth of the corruption. The investigation began after the murder of Armand Swart, an engineer from Vereeniging.
While the Gauteng organised crime unit was initially handling the case, crime intelligence became involved only after a prosecutor raised red flags in a letter to the provincial and national commissioners on August 5 2024.
“The letter highlighted threats faced by the investigating officers. One of the accused was a former SAPS warrant officer, who was identified as a ‘hit organiser’ for this organised crime syndicate,” Khumalo testified.
The prosecutor also revealed that a critical ballistics report — linking suspects to the firearm used in Swart’s murder — had been intentionally excluded from the case file.
Highly trained combat members of the SAPS in Gauteng are moonlighting — working for syndicates outside their official hours.
— Lt-Gen Dumisani Khumalo
Furthermore, the prosecutor alleged that officials within the police were working to destabilise the investigation.
In response, Khumalo registered a counterintelligence project on August 29. He explained that this marked the beginning of significant friction, as his team had to merge with the Gauteng organised crime investigation to form “GCI Ops”.
Because the initial risk assessment revealed that high-level SAPS officials were involved in the threats, Khumalo took the step of seeking help from the KwaZulu-Natal political killings task team (PKTT) rather than using Gauteng-based resources.
“During our analysis and threat assessment, it became clear that almost the entire SAPS infrastructure in Gauteng was working for the cartel,” Khumalo stated.
“We had to bring in a combat team from the PKTT and even a special task force from outside the province to ensure the operation wasn’t compromised.”
To illustrate the severity of the situation, Khumalo noted that cartel members were seen wearing official SAPS combat uniforms.
“Highly trained combat members of the SAPS in Gauteng are moonlighting — working for syndicates outside their official hours,” he said. He recounted two occasions where teams from Gauteng, supposed to be assisting the investigation, were actually moving in tandem with cartel members.
He highlighted another operation on December 6 2024 for the arrest of Katiso “KT” Molefe, who is accused of ordering the hit on Swart, and the questioning of Vusimuzi “Cat” Matlala on a parallel case of kidnapping, which also used the PKTT assistance. This was a one-day operation.
He said they used a different team for those operations because the Gauteng team had been infiltrated.
“The reason was that, during an analysis and a threat and risk assessment, it had come out that almost the whole of SAPS in Gauteng is working for a cartel. Hence we had to get the combat team from the PKTT. Even the special task force that we used for that operation was not from Gauteng but from outside the province.”
Khumalo also clarified the role of the KZN-based PKTT, noting that their involvement — which lasted only two-and-a-half weeks for specific operations — has been misrepresented.
“The PKTT has suffered, and continues to suffer, for providing that assistance. It created the false impression that the PKTT was overstepping its mandate to investigate the cartel, when in reality, they were brought in solely to neutralise the internal threat and provide security because the local teams could not be trusted.”
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