Madlanga Commission Hearing Erupts With Allegations of Bribes, Spies, and Tender Fixing

A North West businessmen with alleged criminal links, Brown Mogotsi, appeared before the Madlanga Commission this week as one of the key individuals named in evidence about alleged links between criminal networks, political actors, and senior police officials.

The commission is investigating claims that political interference, corruption, and organised criminal interests have penetrated South Africa’s criminal-justice system. Earlier testimony and documents, including public briefings by KwaZulu-Natal Police Commissioner Lieutenant General Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi, had identified Mogotsi as a central figure in this matter, leading to his summons as a witness.

Mogotsi is a businessman from North West, with past criminal convictions and has been described as an associate of suspended Police Minister Senzo Mchunu and alleged underworld figure Vusimuzi “Cat” Matlala.

In his testimony before the commission, Mogotsi made several claims. He told the commission that he has worked undercover for Crime Intelligence unit within the South African Police Service (SAPS) since 1999.

Mogotsi also spoke about a R360 million SAPS tender awarded in June 2024 to Matlala that was later suspended due to irregularities.

Mogotsi testified that Matlala later complained to him about not being paid from the SAPS contract and allegedly told him that National Police Commissioner Fannie Masemola and then Police Minister Bheki Cele had both demanded payments. According to Mogotsi, these alleged payments, in the millions of rands, were linked to protection of the tender and to plans to remove Deputy National Commissioner Shadrack Sibiya.

He also claimed that Crime Intelligence officials had previously presented a briefing to Cele in 2018 that identified Matlala as the vigilante known as John Wick (John Wick refers to an unidentified individual linked to targeted shootings involving the Mamelodi-based Boko Haram gang, he is named for John Wick, a character in an eponymous American action movie franchise).

Police have never confirmed the existence of a real person behind the name.

On foreign intelligence, Mogotsi alleged that the United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) had infiltrated senior levels of the KwaZulu-Natal SAPS and the Zulu royal household. He claimed that a source told him that Mkhwanazi and Zulu King Misuzulu kaZwelithini were CIA recruits.

He also claimed that the late former Police Minister and ambassador to France, Nathi Mthethwa, had told him he removed Mkhwanazi as acting national commissioner partly because of suspicions that he might be a CIA agent. Mthethwa died in September in 2025 in Paris in what French authorities believe was a suicide.

Mogotsi acknowledged that his alleged CIA-related sources had not provided supporting documentation for these claims.