Feroz Khan, formerly of Crime Intelligence, was shot and wounded at the end of June. Earlier this month, his uncle was murdered in a separate shooting. The violence left Khan unable to testify before the Madlanga Commission as repeatedly scheduled, though he is set to appear in camera at some point. His is the name that keeps surfacing in South Africa’s police collusion scandal, not that of a commissioner or a minister, and his family has been left grieving while the affair has pulled politicians from five parties into its orbit ahead of next week’s local government elections.
The hearings that produced these names, the Madlanga Commission and a parallel parliamentary inquiry, were both created after KwaZulu-Natal Police Commissioner Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi alleged in July 2025 that a cartel had infiltrated the criminal justice system, politics and the private sector. His accusations exposed deep divisions among top law enforcers and led to criminal charges against several police officers. Both hearings, now winding up, have churned out the names of politicians from the ANC, EFF, NCC, DA and PA.
For ordinary South Africans, the backdrop to the elections is a shaky law enforcement arena saturated with suspicion about political proximity and influence. Suspected connections between politicians and crooks, or suspicions that some politicians are themselves crooks, have circulated for decades. What is different now is how openly the names have emerged.
Among the ANC figures is sidelined police minister Senzo Mchunu, whom Mkhwanazi alleged was linked to figures involved in infiltrating the police service, and whom criminal suspects allegedly influenced to order the disbandment of a police task team. Mchunu denied wrongdoing, but President Cyril Ramaphosa placed him on special leave. Mkhwanazi also alleged that Mchunu was connected to ANC-aligned businessman Brown Mogotsi, who styled himself as an informant and was accused of acting as an intermediary between Mchunu and Vusimuzi “Cat” Matlala, a central figure in the scandal who faces charges including attempted murder. Mchunu acknowledged knowing Mogotsi as a “comrade” but said he did not consider him an associate. In October 2025, the ANC distanced itself from Mogotsi, stating that his membership had expired and that it unequivocally rejected organised criminal activity. Mogotsi, for his part, now stands accused of staging an assassination attempt on himself and trying to bribe the investigating officer in that case.
Matlala’s own case shows how deeply the alleged collusion reached. A police health tender budgeted at R360-million was in 2024 awarded to his company, Medicare 24 Tshwane District, and it was alleged that through collusion with police officers the contract came in at R228-million before being cancelled. National Police Commissioner Fannie Masemola was charged in the case but has since been cleared.
Meanwhile, last week brought fresh charges for Suliman Carrim, a North West businessman and former ANC regional treasurer who had admitted to dealings with Matlala. He was first arrested at OR Tambo International Airport late on 15 October 2026 for failing to testify at the commission, then added six days later as an accused in a money laundering and theft case. The National Prosecuting Authority alleges that Carrim, acting with his employees, attempted to steal two vehicles belonging to Absa using fraudulent documentation. He is expected back in the Musina Magistrates’ Court on 30 October.
The EFF’s Julius Malema has also been mentioned several times at the commission. Messages allegedly between Khan and tobacco industry figure Mohammadh Sayed of Carnilinx were read into evidence, along with some allegedly between Sayed and Malema, suggesting Sayed sometimes messaged Malema on Khan’s behalf. According to the commission, Malema was meant to ensure that Khan’s questions about Timmy Marimuthu, described by amaBhungane as a former drug dealer recruited and paid by Crime Intelligence, were asked in Parliament, so that former Inspector-General of Intelligence Setlhomamaru Dintwe would lie and be removed. Malema denied any involvement in unlawful activities. In April 2026 he was sentenced to five years’ direct imprisonment over a 2018 firearm offence in Mdantsane, declared unfit to possess a firearm, and granted leave to appeal; he remains out on warning pending that appeal.
The NCC’s Fadiel Adams lodged criminal complaints implicating senior Crime Intelligence officers, based on documents he said were slipped under his parliamentary office door. Those complaints led to the June 2025 arrest of Crime Intelligence boss Dumisani Khumalo, Khan’s boss, over an allegedly irregular appointment, an investigation driven by then Idac boss Andrea Johnson, whom Malema had praised at the parliamentary hearing. Johnson later admitted the case was flawed, resigned as accusations mounted, and Khumalo and his co-accused were cleared. Adams told the commission he may have been unknowingly entangled in a broader game. He was subsequently arrested in a fraud and defeating the ends of justice case rooted in KwaZulu-Natal, expected to resume next month. Khan himself has since been criminally charged in a case involving unwrought gold and the release of a suspect, and dismissed from the police service.
The DA and PA appear too. Mkhwanazi alleged that DA MP Dianne Kohler Barnard obtained Crime Intelligence information that should not have been disseminated; she denied leaking information when she appeared as a witness. The commission also heard that a dubious memorandum of understanding was signed between Ekurhuleni’s metro police and a Matlala company under former DA mayor Tania Campbell, who said neither she nor her party knew of it. And PA leader Gayton McKenzie, confronted at the hearing with an inmate’s statement alleging he received drugs from an associate of Matlala and supplied Western Cape gangsters including the murdered William “Red” Stevens, told the SABC the claims were “laughable” and said he could never be a proxy for anyone else. Last month, Daily Maverick reported that McKenzie created the impression of being a proxy for someone he described as a gang member, after speaking of unverified claims against DA politician JP Smith that he said came from a 28s gangster who had phoned him.
With both hearings now winding up and Khan still to testify in camera, the question hanging over next week’s elections is how many more names will surface before the country votes.