Brigadier Rachel Majen oversaw the bid received in 2024 by controversial businessman Vusimuzi “Kat” Matlala.
The investigation into South Africa’s police corruption scandal captivated the nation, as did the second season of Netflix’s vastly profitable crime drama.
The investigation, which will be thought-about the primary season of this actual investigation into allegations by senior law enforcement officials that organized crime teams have been infiltrating the police drive and authorities final July, was performed from September to December. The revelations included particulars of the alleged drug cartel and named the individual on the heart of the corruption scandal.
The “second season” of the inquiry has simply concluded, with one other interim report on the inquiry handed to President Cyril Ramaphosa on Friday.
Like the primary interim report from the Madranga Fee, which may very well be fairly explosive relying on the result of the general public hearings, it was not made public.
Earlier than the third part, or “Season 3,” begins subsequent month, listed here are some eye-catching moments from the previous 64 days of hearings, throughout which 32 witnesses testified.
Brazilian butt carry refused
In February, senior police officer Warrant Officer Rachel Magen appeared earlier than the fee. The fee is known as after former Constitutional Courtroom choose Mbuyiseli Madranga, who’s main the investigation.
She was there as a result of she oversaw a young that was awarded to controversial businessman Vusimuzi “Cat” Matlala’s firm Medicare24 Tshwane District in 2024 to offer medical providers to the police.
The contract was terminated a yr later, and greater than a dozen police officers, together with Machen, have since been formally charged for his or her roles within the deal. None of them have but been known as to plead in courtroom.
In her testimony to the committee, Ms. Machen denied receiving kickbacks from Ms. Matlala, as a substitute claiming that the 2 had an on-and-off romantic relationship that lasted till her arrest final yr, and that Mr. Matlala had been showering her with lavish presents.
One among these presents was a shot of the burden loss drug Ozempic, which she requested her “boyfriend” to acquire.
Machen stated she didn’t settle for bribes for Brazilian butt lifts (BBLs) as reported on-line, telling the committee: “So, for me, from my boyfriend (matlala), I solely ask for an ozempic (sic), in contrast to those that ask for a BBL.”
Matlala himself has not but appeared earlier than the committee.
He was named in testimony final yr by the police’s head of prison intelligence as one of many key figures within the drug trafficking and prison cartel generally known as the Huge 5, which can also be stated to have dedicated contract killings, cross-border hijackings and kidnappings.
Matlala is at the moment being held on 25 prison fees, together with tried homicide. He denies all fees towards him.
He’s anticipated to make his long-awaited look within the remaining phases of the committee’s listening to to reply the allegations towards him.
drug theft suspect
One other main focus of the Madranga Fee is the dealing with of two large-scale drug operations that occurred only one month aside in 2021.
One incident occurred within the southern port metropolis of Durban in June of the identical yr, and the opposite occurred a month later in Johannesburg.
Within the first incident, police seized 541kg of cocaine value greater than R200 million ($12 million, £9 million) hidden in a delivery container full of animal bone meal. 5 months later, the confiscated medication have been stolen in an obvious insider assault from a poorly secured constructing owned by the Hawks, an elite police drive.
Hawks official Maj. Gen. Hendrick Flynn detailed to the inquiry a sequence of lapses by law enforcement officials main as much as the theft.
These included the failure to gather DNA and fingerprint samples from the scene and the choice to retailer medication in a constructing with out sufficient safety, regardless of the presence of a safe constructing close to the police location.
“I imagine that this was not a coincidence and that the sequence of occasions was definitely…deliberate,” Flynn stated.
One other senior Hawks official, Lieutenant-Colonel Nkoana Thebola, advised the committee that the circumstances surrounding a second seizure in July 2021 of 700kg of cocaine value an estimated $17.3 million from a warehouse in an industrial space on the outskirts of Johannesburg have been additionally suspicious.
The medication have been hidden in black luggage amongst truck elements being imported for a widely known trucking firm. Containers additionally got here in by means of the port of Durban.
Cebola stated he believes the primary officers on the scene have been performing exterior their jurisdiction and have been committing the theft.
One among them, Marumo Magane, an office-based analyst with no expertise in investigative work or dealing with drug busts, advised the fee that he was known as by a senior site visitors police officer to assist on the scene. The police officer was additionally not certified to deal with drug busts, however stated he had acquired a tip.
The committee heard how each officers entered the premises of a logistics firm in east Johannesburg with out a search warrant.
Magane stated he accompanied the alleged informant and requested an worker to open the container to “confirm the data”.
However he was advised to attend till the container was delivered to its remaining vacation spot south of Johannesburg, the place Magane ordered the luggage containing the medication to be unloaded into the again of a truck.
Suspicious employees on the warehouse alerted native police, and Hawks investigators subsequently arrived on the scene.
Magane, who was not current on the police station accountable for processing the crime scene, reiterated throughout his testimony that he had no intention of stealing the medication. The site visitors police officer is but to seem earlier than the fee.
Nonetheless, Magane admitted to a sequence of failures in responding to the scene, together with tampering with reveals and proof and loading medication right into a police-issued car.
Madranga stated to Magane: “You have been ignorant, and also you knew you have been ignorant.”
The hapless analyst replied, “That is proper, Director.”
He and several other others have been arrested for his or her involvement within the failed operation, however the fees have been dropped in 2022 after prosecutors decided there was “no likelihood of success.”
The investigation additionally requested how the seized gadgets have been transported to a forensic laboratory for safekeeping, and the placement the place 136kg of cocaine was found lacking in February 2025.
reluctant witness
Police informant and political fixer Oupa “Brown” Mogotsi, stated to be one of many central figures in facilitating the infiltration of the police drive by corrupt people, first appeared on the inquiry in November. He denies the costs.
Mogotsi, a businessman and member of the African Nationwide Congress (ANC) social gathering, stated beforehand that he had survived an assassination try.
In his first courtroom look, he advised the committee that his automotive had come underneath hearth in an space in jap Johannesburg and that he was “fleeing for his life”. Police launched an investigation into the incident and seized the car.
Throughout his testimony in November, he went on to make much more dramatic claims, which he later recanted, that Common Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi (the police whistleblower whose explosive allegations led to President Ramaphosa establishing the Madranga Fee) and the Zulu king have been CIA spies.
The businessman was scheduled to return to the committee in March, however his case was postponed as a result of he was too unwell to seem in courtroom.
Mr Mogotsi reluctantly returned for cross-examination in Might, with Decide Madranga saying his medical situation was “not useful”.
However he first tried to have the lawyer in control of giving proof to the committee, Matthew Chaskalson, dismissed on the grounds that he was biased by making an attempt to induce the involvement of one other witness.
When his bid was rejected, Mogotsi was clearly livid and refused to reply lots of the questions put to him out of worry that he himself was at fault.
In an ironic accident, he was arrested shortly after giving his proof by a specialist police unit arrange earlier this yr to analyze proof arising from inquiries and investigations.
The crew, generally known as the European Fee Suggestion Job Group (CRTT), is accountable for 5 high-profile arrests prior to now few months, a lot of which weren’t straight associated to the proof within the investigation.
Mr Mogotsi appeared in courtroom on fees of forgery and an try on his life. Regardless of vehemently denying that he directed the hit movie, he faces a sequence of fees in reference to the incident and is at the moment making use of for bail.
The Madranga Committee’s remaining report is anticipated to be submitted in August, and the report is anticipated to be made public.
