DA MP Diane Kohler-Barnard said on Thursday said KwaZulu-Natal Police Commissioner Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi’s allegation against her arose from his erroneous understanding that she disclosed classified information.

Kohler-Barnard also said some of the information Mkhwanazi referred to had been already in the public domain.

“All of the communications by me, at which I understand Lieutenant-General Mkhwanazi’s allegation to be leveled, occurred prior to my membership of the Joint Standing Committee on Intelligence (JSCI),” she said.

Kohler-Barnard is giving evidence before the Ad Hoc Committee that is probing the allegations that were made by Mkhwanazi at a press conference in July 2025.

Mkhwanazi had at the Madlanga Commission of Inquiry and the Ad Hoc Committee accused her of taking things that belonged in JSCI and asked them through an open committee such as the Police Portfolio Committee.

Testifying before the Ad Hoc Committee, the provincial commissioner took issue that Kohler-Barnard asked parliamentary questions as an MP about procurement of Crime Intelligence properties that should have been asked in the JSCI.

Mkhwanazi had given examples of questions Kohler-Barnard asked as a member of the Police Portfolio Committee, including an investigative report by the Inspector-General of Intelligence following reports of purchasing of luxurious hotels.

“I don’t want to say the report ended being spoken by News24,” he said at the time.

However, Kohler-Barnard said in her affidavit Mkhwanazi had at his televised press conference accused her of being part of a criminal syndicate and reported similar allegations at the Madlanga Commission.

She noted that while he did not repeat the criminal syndicate allegations at the Ad Hoc Committee, the provincial commissioner had stated that she ought to have not commented on the information concerned despite information already in the public domain.

“This amounted to a dilution of the earlier allegations,” she said.

During her testimony, Kohler-Barnard said there was news report about splurge on luxury hotels by Crime Intelligence on 13 January 2025.

“That was the first I heard of this,” she said.

She said the report about the Crime Intelligence properties happened before the JSCI was formed.

“The JSCI did not exist at that stage. It was put together on 1 April. All of this happened way before. I have no idea how the information about the hotels came to be in the newspapers,” said Kohler-Barnard.

She said at the time she made press statements the JSCI had not been formed.

“There is no merit to Lieutenant-General Mkhwanazi’s allegations that I obtained knowledge of the to property purchases as a result of my position on the current JSCI, or that I leaked classified information relating to the two properties in my press statements. It would have been impossible for me to do so.”

She also denied knowing the journalist who wrote the news article.

“I never met him.”

Asked by evidence leader, Advocate Norman Arendse about her reaction to Mkhwanazi’s July 2025 press conference, Kohler-Barnard noted that some people welcomed it while others criticised it.

“What I heard was a very frustrated officer who felt let down by the system. He did not raise much of what he said in the police portfolio committee previously but certainly what he came with, people were fascinated.

“Much of what he said could be tracked to be real, honourable and honest. In other items, I was a bit cautious and thought I need to see proof on this or that. So I don’t know what ramification will be of what he did whether he is whistle-blower or what his status and position is.”

She, however, said the issues Mkhwanazi had raised were now attended to by the Ad Hoc Committee.

When she was asked about Mkhwanazi’s allegation that the criminal justice has been corrupted and infiltrated, Kohler-Barnard said there had been some rumours for some time.

She also said people get irritated that cases took long to get to court and that perhaps backlogs in court were an issue.

“To label the entire judicial system to be a problem, I think, is itself problematic. Pick up specific issues and deal with them. To just damn every judge, magistrate and everybody involved, I think, is excessive,” said Kohler-Barnard.

mayibongwe.maqhina@inl.co.za

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