Suspended Ekurhuleni Metro Police Department deputy chief Julius Mkhwanazi faces scrutiny at the Madlanga Commission for the distribution of appointment cards for a unit whose establishment had not been approved.
Image: Armand Hough / Independent Newspapers
The Madlanga Commission has heard that suspended Deputy Chief of the Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Police Department (EMPD), Julius Mkhwanazi, arranged for peace corps (peace officers) appointment cards to be fetched by service providers from EMPD offices for a unit whose establishment had not been approved.
The Peace Corps, according to Mkhwanazi, was going to assist EMPD in conducting traffic control and scholar patrol in Ekurhuleni.
These stemmed from Memorandums of Understanding (MoUs) signed between Medicare24, Anubis Security Services, and EMPD.
The MoUs sought to establish a unit that would involve private security individuals being registered as peace corps, which Mkhwanazi also described as reservists or volunteers, who would assist EMPD in executing its duties.
These would effectively give them a status of being some form of law enforcement officers. Among those who sought to become a Peace Corps member was attempted murder-accused tenderpreneur, Vusimusi ‘Cat’ Matlala.
He and another individual, who wanted to join the Peace Corps, had criminal records. The commission has since received an affidavit from the police confirming that the Police Clearance Certificate submitted by Matlala to EMPD was fraudulent, as he had two criminal records at that time.
Evidence before the commission showed that Mkhwanazi wrote a message to Medicare24 Holdings CEO Mikea van Wyk, saying: “Kindly prepare, Gcwabe (Ndumiso Gcwabe, EMPD head of Security and Laws Control) will be coming to finalise the issue of appointment cards today. I have already given him a clue.”
Asked about the cards, which Van Wyk said he was coming to collect, Mkhwanazi said they were for individuals who attended a two-week Peace Corps training.
“The implementation part of the Peace Corps unit did not go anywhere. It was disturbed by the political charges,” he said.
The commission’s evidence leader, Advocate Mahlape Sello SC, said to Mkhwanazi: “I would like to make this proposition to you that established this unit called ‘Peace Corp’ in association with inter-alia, Mr Van Wyk, in terms of which you appointed certain people including Mr Matlala, as peace officers in circumstances where you knew authorisation and approval was required but you had not obtained that approval. Do you have a comment?”
Mkhwanazi said: “Yes. I’ve got a comment. I know now you are individualising it to Matlala. This operation didn’t look only at Matlala. We looked at different security companies. I know the name and everything, that is why it was detected by our team that there are these two individuals (who had criminal records - a black and a white person)...”
Mkhwanazi revealed that the Member of the Mayoral Committee (MMC) for Community Safety at that time approved the establishment of the Peace Corps; however, the written approval never arrived. He could not recall whether it was an ActionSA MMC or a DA MMC, as there were multiple changes in that political office within a short space of time.
Mkhwanazi said Van Wyk made a presentation about the Peace Corps unit to EMPD senior management, including the MMC.
“I remember that on our side, there was an engagement on our side with the political head of the department, MMC of Community Safety. Again, we had agreed with Gcwabe that we need to finalise with Deputy Chief of Police Mzolo (Goodman Mzolo is the former Deputy Chief of Police for Operations),” he said.
He highlighted that earlier it had been said that no one in EMPD management knew about the establishment of the Peace Corps, and it was referred to as ‘Julius Mkhwanazi’s thing’.
Mkhwanazi then told the commissioners that the minutes of the meeting where the MMC was present would reveal discussions about the establishment of the Peace Corps unit.
Co-commissioner Advocate Sandile Khumalo SC wanted to know from Mkhwanazi about the whereabouts of the appointment cards for Peace Corps that were collected by some individuals from EMPD offices before the project collapsed.
Mkhwanazi admitted that some appointment cards were collected, but some were not.
“I’m assuming that if at 10h00 in February of 2021, Mr Van Wyk came to the EMPD offices to collect cards, then he would have taken those cards and he would have either kept them, or distributed them to his employees or people who work for him.”
To which Mkhwanazi responded: “I get you, Commissioner.”
Khumalo said: “What I’m interested in is if those people are in possession of those cards that bear the EMPD logo, and you say the implementation of this project was not approved. They cannot be driving around displaying those cards to the members of the public and saying, ‘I work with EMPD, I therefore have authority to search your car or to perform these services’. And those cards should then be taken back and collected. That’s really where I’m going. That’s why I want to understand those cards that were collected; did the EMPD take them back, or are they still in the hands of those people who were issued the cards?”
Khumalo further said: “You say that the implementation of this project was not approved. I don’t want those people walking around with those cards and displaying them to members of the public.”
To which Mkhwanazi responded: “I get you, Commissioner, 100%.”