The Madlanga Commission has heard allegations that bribes were offered to secure bail for three men accused of murdering Vereeniging engineer Armand Swart. A detective told the inquiry that payments were arranged for investigating officers, a magistrate, and a prosecutor to ensure the accused were released pending trial.

Swart, who worked for Q Tech Engineering, was shot dead in April 2024 after his firm uncovered evidence that middlemen were inflating product prices by several thousand percent and reselling them to Transnet at vastly higher rates. The killing is believed to have been a contract hit linked to those revelations.

The accused – Warrant Officer Michael Pule Tau, Musa Kekana, and Tlego Floyd Mabusela – are alleged to have ties to a criminal network implicated in other high-profile murders. The commission continues its hearings into corruption and criminal infiltration within the police service.