Action required, Mr President

The Madlanga commission has emerged as a potent disruptor, presenting South Africans with breathtaking allegations against a range of powerful people in the criminal justice system, business and politics.

Despite the gut-twisting accounts of misuse of power by senior law enforcement officials, the commission, launched in September 2025, has provided a glimmer of hope that the rot can be stopped.

Not least among the commission’s achievements so far is that it has put the brakes on the pell-mell grab for criminal control of key parts of the police and justice system by a sophisticated network of organised crime that had already deeply penetrated the highest levels of command.

Even as evidence is presented to the commission day by day, a separate unit of the police is investigating the allegations and making arrests, weakening the criminal networks.

What is clear is that the networks and dodgy politicians learnt from the state capture era. They have employed similar tactics, including “investigations” leading to overblown and potentially unlawful charges. This was shown in the shocking evidence by Brian Padayachee, the lead investigator in the investigation by the Independent Directorate Against Corruption (Idac) into crime intelligence boss Dumisani Khumalo.

Padayachee gave sight of the docket to Feroz Khan, deputy director of crime intelligence, who was a witness in the case. Testimony revealed that Dineo Mokwele, another crime intelligence officer, was charged alongside Khumalo even though there was no direct evidence implicating her. Padayachee seemed, absurdly, to suggest she would be in a position to commit fraud and corruption in the future.

Unmasking the bad guys

What the commission has shown is that the “good guy vs bad guy” narrative that emerged at the Zondo commission does not always apply here, as demonstrated in particular by evidence concerning suspended police minister Senzo Mchunu and Idac head Andrea Johnson. This renders the work of the commission all the more crucial, as the shadowy figures laying the foundation for the next stage of capture are being systematically unmasked.

When Mchunu returns to the commission – he made an initial appearance late last year – a fuller picture of his role (or that of his office) will be put to him.

Padayachee’s evidence, and a court application brought by the suspended inspector-general of intelligence, Imtiaz Fazel, reported on by amaBhungane last Monday, show that the onslaught against Khumalo – which now appears to be based on a mere human resources matter – was prompted and encouraged by Mchunu and his adviser, Cedric Nkabinde.

Last Tuesday, Johnson invoked her right against self-incrimination when questioned about allegations that she had provided Khan with the docket of an assault case against him. Khan is yet to appear before the commission after he was shot and wounded three days before he was due to face the music.

Another thread the commission has begun unravelling is the extent of the involvement of the judiciary in the attempt to capture crime intelligence. The commission raised questions about the conduct of Pretoria acting chief magistrate Vusumuzi Mahlangu, who added to Khumalo’s bail conditions a ban on him returning to his office. The prosecutor had not sought this, despite a request to do so from Padayachee.

No time for dithering

In the end, the true test of the value of the Madlanga commission will be the institutional reform of the criminal justice system that it will surely recommend. But the justice department is where most commissions go to die once their work is done and handed over to politicians for implementation.

The National Prosecuting Authority and Idac remain hobbled due to the failure of President Cyril Ramaphosa’s administration to implement recommendations of the Zondo commission to grant them full independence and free them from the control of the justice department.

The office of the inspector-general of intelligence is also in crisis because of Ramaphosa’s failure to proclaim the General Intelligence Laws Amendment Act, which he signed into law in March last year. It contains recommendations from the high-level panel chaired by ANC veteran Sydney Mufamadi.

And the president has sat on his hands over the 2020 recommendation by the commission chaired by retired judge Lex Mpati into the Public Investment Corporation, to the effect that the entity should have an independent board chair; the result is the boardroom intrigue now playing out in the asset manager.

The Ramaphosa administration has just a year to act on the Madlanga commission recommendations, due to be submitted in mid-November. Another failure to act will mean the dedication and excellence displayed by justice Mbuyiseli Madlanga and his team come to nought.

Worse, it will mark a deep betrayal of South Africans who are raptly following the proceedings, while living every day with the consequences of a broken criminal justice system.

Natasha Marrian is a political analyst at the Bureau for Economic Research.

This story first appeared in the Financial Mail. Currency and the Financial Mail are part of the Financial Mail Group.

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_{Top image collage: Gallo Images/Frennie Shivambu (Mbuyiseli Madlanga); Pexels/Mikhail Nilov; Rawpixel; Currency.}