North West businessman Brown Mogotsi. Photo: Delwyn Verasamy
North West businessman Brown Mogotsi has told parliament’s ad hoc committee investigating police corruption that KwaZulu-Natal commissioner Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi met businessman and alleged “Big Five” cartel leader Vusimuzi “Cat” Matlala.
Mogotsi said this in response to Mkhwanazi’s earlier testimony that he would not make peace with criminals, adding that Matlala had confirmed the meeting to him.
“I still maintain that given the period of time General Mkhwanazi had since addressing the media, I believe he should have taken the country to confidence that ‘I also met with Cat Matlala’,” Mogotsi told MPs, referring to the KwaZulu-Natal police boss’s media briefing last July in which he made allegations of corruption and political interference implicating Police Minister Senzo Mchunu, among others.
Mchunu, who was suspended by President Cyril Ramaphosa soon afterwards, denies all the allegations against him.
On Tuesday Mogotsi said before Mkhwanazi’s news conference, Matlala had informed him of a meeting with the KwaZulu-Natal provincial commissioner to resolve his case.
“He did mention that ‘my brother, remember when I told you I went to KZN, I actually went to meet General Mkhwanazi’ … To my surprise, the alleged member of the Big Five sat with him, corroborated by Major General [Lesetja] Senona,” he said.
Mogotsi also made serious allegations about policing tactics under Mkhwanazi’s command, telling the ad hoc committee: “I came to learn that all General Mkhwanazi’s suspects do not make it out alive.
“They don’t get a chance to shoot back … There’s never evidence to know where these criminals come from because they get killed before they get to whoever is sending them or the big people behind them,” he said.
He also alleged that Mkhwanazi has close links to a telecoms company, Magma, which can retrieve deleted text messages and manufacture false messages implicating suspects.
“Because of the relationship Magma has with General Mkhwanazi, that’s where the suspicion is drawn, that it was actually used to [retrieve WhatsApp messages],” Mogotsi said.
“Hence I believe many messages which were not in favour of certain people were deleted. It’s because of this machine and Magma has this machine.”
Mogotsi. who told the committee that he became a South African Police Service informant and contact agent for crime intelligence in 2009, said he required permission from his handlers to provide proof to corroborate his testimony.
Mkhwanazi and crime intelligence boss Dumisani Khumalo have accused him of acting as a middleman between criminal cartels and Mchunu. They also said Mogotsi shared confidential police information with Matlala, alerting him to impending search-and-seizure operations and arrests. In exchange, Matlala funded delegates to the ANC’s 2025 January 8 conference and Mchunu’s failed presidential bid.
Mogotsi has denied this, stating Mkhwanazi and Khumalo would not have known about his status as a contact agent.
“It’s only handlers who know their agents,” he said, adding that his contact with Matlala was to source information that would implicate him in a crime intelligence investigation.
“The reason why General Mkhwanazi would think I have a dubious relationship with senior police officials is because he was not aware that I was a crime intelligence contact agent,” he said.
Mogotsi said only his crime intelligence handler held the file containing his appointment details. He said his co-handler, who has been summoned to appear before the Madlanga Commission, would validate his account.
“The co-handler, who is going to appear, has been summoned at the Madlanga commission who knew my handler. Just three weeks before I went to Madlanga my handler was shot six times in Johannesburg,” he said.
He pushed back against earlier claims by former police commissioner and minister Bheki Cele, who told the committee he knew about Matlala only in 2018.
Mogotsi said that during his testimony at the Madlanga commission, which is running a parallel inquiry into corruption in the criminal justice system, he referred to a suspect, called “John Wick”, which he said was a reference to Matlala.
He said Cele should have been aware of Matlala by 2014 through a crime intelligence presentation.