Witness A’s testimony at the Madlanga Commission of Inquiry has connected the dots and shown a web of systemic rot where a police officer became a hitman on behalf of the criminal syndicate that sought to eliminate a ‘threat’.

Cellphone evidence, CCTV footage, and car-tracking information presented by Witness A at the commission put controversial businessman and murder-accused Katiso ‘KT’ Molefe, and police officer Warrant Officer Michael Pule Tau, among others, at the centre of the murder of Armand Swart, an employee of a Vereeniging engineering company, who was shot dead after alleged hitmen mistook him for his boss.

Molefe is out on R400,000 bail for the murder of DJ Sumbody. He is charged alongside three alleged hitmen, Tau, Musa Kekana, and Tiego Floyd Mabusela.

It was revealed that Tau’s cellphone is the one that gave links to the investigators, showing that the cop was in constant communication with Molefe. 

Witness A, a detective with the SAPS’s organised crime unit in Gauteng, testified at the Madlanga Commission of Inquiry, which is investigating allegations of collusion and corruption between politicians, senior police, prosecutors, intelligence operatives, and elements of the judiciary, levelled by KwaZulu-Natal Provincial Police Commissioner Lieutenant-General Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi.

His testimony was held partially in camera, where the public was able to hear his voice but not see his face. This, according to the commission, was done for the safety of the witness.

He detailed what started as being asked to attend to a crime scene in April 2024, where Swart was shot dead, allegedly mistaken for his boss. The company Swart worked for had uncovered a 4 650% overpricing on small engineering parts at Transnet.

According to Witness A, cellphone evidence showed Tau and Molefe communicating about what appeared to be the information of a company where Swart was employed.

Car-tracking information showed that Tau would visit Molefe’s home, driving his Mercedes-Benz Viano. The same car was spotted on CCTV footage ‘scouting’ the area where Swart was employed a day before the murder.

Witness A said that when he and his colleagues got to the scene, three people had already been arrested.

“We started interviewing individuals, and one of them was a police officer, who identified himself as Michael Pule Tau. Musa Kekana was the driver, the other individual we cannot name because he was not linked to the murder,” Witness A said.

At least four cellphones were recovered from the suspects, one of them a burner phone, which Witness A described as not having an internet connection (a phone that cannot be easily traced).

A rim of a Mercedes-Benz, 15 used cartridges, and a firearm were recovered by the police from the murder suspects when they were arrested following the murder. These would lead to other scenes, one in Bramley — the home of Kekana — and a third scene in Kliprivier, where Mabusela was arrested, according to Witness A.

The hearing continues.

gcwalisile.khanyile@inl.co.za

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