FROM OUR ARCHIVES: Mkhwanazi reveals how 'Brown Mogotsi' tried to meddle in SAPS affairs
In April this year, Eyewitness News sat down with KwaZulu-Natal Police Commissioner Lieutenant-General Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi to speak about IPID's probe into his involvement in the arrest of a correctional services official in northern KwaZulu-Natal.
KwaZulu-Natal Police Commissioner Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi in his office at the provincial operations building in Durban. Picture: Katlego Jiyane/EWN
JOHANNESBURG - In April this year, Eyewitness News sat down with KwaZulu-Natal Police Commissioner Lieutenant-General Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi to speak about IPID's probe into his involvement in the arrest of a correctional services official in northern KwaZulu-Natal.
During the interview, Mkhwanazi spoke in detail about an individual from the North West, known as Oupa 'Brown' Mogotsi, who claimed to be a close associate of Police Minister Senzo Mchunu. KZN's top cop described how Mogotsi allegedly contacted him and began meddling in police business and fuelling tensions among the hierarchy of the organisation in September last year.
On Sunday, in an unprecedented move, Mkhwanazi held a press briefing in Durban where he put forward damning allegations about how the SAPS in Gauteng, including Mchunu, were complicit in protecting alleged criminals with links to the drug cartel.
One such person was Vuzimusi "Cat" Matlala, a tender tycoon, who is known for his alleged involvement in the criminal underworld and who previously scored multi-million rand tenders in the Tembisa Hospital scandal, as well as a R360 million SAPS tender, which was subsequently cancelled earlier this year.
Matlala was arrested earlier this year on charges of conspiracy to commit murder following an alleged hit on his socialite ex-girlfriend, Tebogo Thobejane.
Matlala was arrested in May on charges of attempted murder and conspiracy to commit murder.
The attempted hit on Thobejane happened in October 2023 at a club in Sandton.