Newly released Madlanga Commission court papers paint a dramatic picture of alleged links between senior crime intelligence figure Feroz Khan, tobacco smugglers, politicians and suspected criminal operatives. The documents contain claims of leaked police secrets, political interference, contract manipulation and connections to a murder cover-up, allegations Khan has yet to answer under oath ahead of his scheduled appearance before the commission on July 1.
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Damning evidence at the Madlanga Commission of Inquiry into police corruption, tells the story of how a killer used the name of SA’s deputy Crime Intelligence head Maj-Gen Feroz Khan to cover up his crime.
In the Commission's court papers it is revealed that after repeatedly forcing a plastic bag over a man’s face so he could not breathe, and beating him over and over again until he died, the killers did not panic.
In fact, one of them was so calm about it that he told his accomplices he would phone SA’s deputy Crime Intelligence head Maj-Gen Feroz Khan to “fix this” and find out how to get rid of the body.
The father of five, Emmanuel Mbense, was then dumped in the Duduza Dam in Nigel.
If the Madlanga Commission’s 750-page court papers are anything to go by, the killers were brazen and confident, seemingly believing they would face no consequences due to their alleged connection to Khan.
Khan, the commission alleged, used his position to leak sensitive police information to associates such as alleged tobacco smuggler Mohammed “Mo” Sayed and to interfere in investigations.
The papers, which were filed in the Johannesburg High Court and released publicly this week, stem from evidence obtained by the commission's investigators.
This follows the seizure of a hard drive and an iPhone 11 during Khan’s arrest at his Houghton apartment in Johannesburg last month.
Gauteng Hawks head Major General Ebrahim Kadwa and Durban businessman Tariq Downes were also arrested.
The devices are said to have contained downloaded WhatsApp messages belonging to Khan.
Those messages, it is alleged, show how he communicated with Sayed and shared sensitive police information.
Chief among the allegations is that he leaked top-secret police files, including the name and private home address of the state’s main complainant in the VBS Mutual Bank scandal, curator Anoosh Rooplal, to EFF leader Julius Malema.
After realising the commission was reviewing the messages, he launched an urgent court bid to block the evidence from being made public.
Khan withdrew his application on Monday.
This led to the commission releasing a detailed set of legal documents that laid bare what it described as Khan’s alleged criminal network.
The documents set out the scope of the inquiry into Khan ahead of his scheduled appearance before the commission on July 1.
It was largely based on an affidavit compiled by investigator Tshepo Nyatlo.
According to Nyatlo’s affidavit, Carnilinx donated R650,000 to the EFF to support its registration as a political party, while a late Carnilinx worker provided Malema with R1m to settle tax debt.
Carnilinx is a tobacco company that has been linked in various investigations and allegations to cigarette distribution and smuggling networks in Southern Africa.
Malema and his family were said to have holed up at the Sandton penthouse of Carnilinx owner and alleged cigarette smuggler Adriano Mazzotti.
"Carnilinx donated R650,000 to the EFF to enable it to register as a political party," Nyatlo said.
"The late Kyle Phillips of Carnilinx advanced R1m to Malema to enable him to settle a tax debt to the SA Revenue Service.
"Mazotti regularly made his Sandton penthouse available to Malema for his use."
Nyatlo added: "Malema and his family lived in a house rented to him by the CEO of Carnilinx, Mazotti; and Khan attended an EFF gala dinner at a table sponsored by Carnilinx.
"He claimed to be conducting crime intelligence business at the time.
"If Khan disputes any of these allegations, I invite him to do so under oath in his replying affidavit."
Nyatlo further alleged that Khan gave Sayed secret investigation targets, the names of undercover officers, and details of planned police raids.
Khan, in turn, alleged that police threatened security guards at his house and forced them to lie on the floor during his arrest.
This, according to the papers, gave Sayed an insider advantage, allegedly allowing him to use Khan’s own police officers to raid, seize goods from, and permanently shut down the businesses of his rivals in the illegal cigarette trade, including Gold Leaf Tobacco and Protobac.
"It appears from the chats that there were numerous occasions on which Khan assisted Sayed to target competitors of Carnilinx in the illegal tobacco industry," Nyatlo said.
"On June 11 2021, Sayed messaged Khan about Protobac, giving details of their factory, what cigarette brands they manufactured and saying 'I need to f--- them out of sight'."
Protobac is a tobacco company in KuGompo City, formerly East London.
"On June 23 2021, Sayed forwarded to Khan an internal SAPS report on [a] raid on Protobac followed by a copy of the SAPS register of the amounts of cigarettes seized from Protobac," Nyatlo said.
He then complained that the register appeared to undercount the amount.
Nyatlo said on another occasion Sayed also forwarded a series of messages to Khan about the interception of trucks of competitors.
"In this case, it appears the trucks were transporting Gold Leaf brands because the messages referred to '15 trucks of GL'.
"On August 7 2021 and April 1 2022 Sayed forwarded to Khan a series of messages and photographs of a SAPS raid on competitors.
"In response to the second set of messages which related to Gold Leaf tobacco, Khan expressed approval that they were 'getting knocked from all sides'.
"On October 20 2022, Khan forwarded to Sayed an internal SAPS report on the arrest of several people in relation to the illegal cigarette trade in Cape Town."
He apparently followed up his message with a series of photographs of the suspects, their vehicles and the confiscated cigarettes.
Khan was also accused of receiving “kickbacks” linked to a R280m Treasury tender awarded to the company Cyberia.
Nyatlo said Khan and Sayed allegedly colluded with Lt-Gen Molefe Fani.
He said Fani was a chief director at National Treasury at the time, where he was responsible for overseeing contracts.
Fani has since been moved to a senior role in the SAPS supply chain division.
He is currently suspended over alleged involvement in a separate R360m police tender linked to Medicare24, a company owned by controversial businessman Vusimusi “Cat” Matlala.
Company Smada was allegedly used to facilitate payments linked to the Cyberia contract.
"At 6.58pm on July 26 2021, Sayed messaged Khan messaged Khan to explain that on the proposed contract of R280m, they would get approximately R92.4m or 30% which would be split equally three ways," Nyatlo said.
"It is not clear whether the third party who would receive approximately R27.6m from this enterprise was General Fani or someone else.
"At 7pm on July 26 2021, Sayed forwarded the current draft of the contract between Cyberia and Smada.
"It appears to be a thinly disguised kickback agreement for improper facilitation “services” provided to Cyberia to secure the contract with Treasury."
The documents further alleged that Khan wrote questions for Malema to read out in Parliament, in an effort to push for the removal of then Inspector-General of Intelligence Isaac Dintwe.
"In June 2021, Khan, Malema and Sayed seemingly conspired to orchestrate the removal of Dintwe," Nyatlo's affidavit read.
"Khan sent to Sayed a series of questions to be posed to [Dintwe] in Parliament by the EFF.
"As emerges from later chats, these questions were designed to trap [Dintwe] into giving a dishonest response, whereafter his removal could be demanded."
Nyatlo added: "If Khan’s primary concern related to the possibility of an improper relationship between the [Dintwe] and an alleged drug dealer, he would have raised that concern directly through the appropriate channels, rather than using his relationship with an alleged tobacco smuggler to plant a question to [Dintwe] in Parliament."
According to the extracted texts, Khan sent Sayed a list of “trap questions” for Malema to ask in Parliament.
Khan allegedly texted Sayed: “This should get him to lie and in return, we can ask for his removal coz he lied.” (sic)
Sayed replied: “Absolutely. He's gonna deny it and then he's f----d.” (sic)
The following day, Sayed forwarded a message to Khan stating, “Juju sent me now”, confirming that Malema would read the questions in Parliament.
In return for acting as Khan’s political attack dog, Malema allegedly offered him political protection.
In a later text, Sayed assured Khan of Malema’s backing, writing: “I forgot to tell you that Ju called me, said that you will not ever resign, no matter what, this is a fight and we will emerge victorious.”
The documents also laid bare Khan’s close ties to the late Wiandre Pretorius.
The late Marius "Vlam" van der Merwe, while testifying at the Madlanga Commission late last year, described Pretorius as “a person that frequently presents himself as a SAPS member".
Van der Merwe, who was assassinated in full view of his wife and children on December 5, testified that he and Pretorius were part of a group that tortured Mbense to death.
According to his testimony, Pretorius said Khan should be contacted in relation to the disposal of the victim’s body.
Pretorius died in February after shooting himself at a petrol station in Brakpan.
The incident happened in front of his partner.
He previously survived an assassination attempt outside his home in Boksburg.
"The commission has heard evidence of the operation of a criminal theft and extortion syndicate within the EMPD under the alleged direction of [former] commissioner Julius Mkhwanazi," Nyatlo said.
"The evidence has been that one of the participants in this syndicate was Pretorius.
"According to the evidence of Van der Merwe, Pretorius was a man who passed himself off as a SAPS officer and who felt able to call Khan for advice on how to dispose of the body of a murder victim."
Nyatlo is referring to Van der Merwe’s testimony, in which he said he noticed Pretorius and Mbense with a plastic bag, while two SAPS Brakpan members assisted from the right-hand side of his double bed.
Mbense was implicated in a business robbery in Boksburg on April 14 2022.
Less than 10 days later, Van der Merwe said Mbense had been “tubed”, a method in which a plastic bag is placed over a person’s head to suffocate them until they can no longer breathe or speak.
He also said Mbense was beaten, and that his death certificate recorded blunt force trauma to the head.
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