Mogotsi seeks to show Madlanga commission the ‘real picture’, but unravels in cross-examination
“There is a theory in intelligence, commissioners, which is called ‘misdirection’,” controversial businessman Brown Mogotsi told the Madlanga commission on Tuesday.
Lt-Gen Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi’s media briefing in July — the briefing that triggered the commission — was such an exercise of misdirection, he said.
The real reason Mkhwanazi had taken the extraordinary step of briefing the media was not really about the Big 5 drug cartel and the disbandment of the political killings task team.
“These people were still going to be arrested whether the PKTT [Political Killings Task Team] was there or not,” said Mogotsi. What had really “angered” Mkhwanazi was the impending arrest of the head of crime intelligence, Dumisani Khumalo, he said.
“You see, the arrest of Gen Khumalo was a breaking point. It almost changed the South African Police Service. Everything changed. That is why we are here.”
On his first day of testifying, Mogotsi revealed that he was a crime intelligence “contact agent”. Contrary to the evidence led so far — that Mogotsi was facilitating the crooked agenda of alleged cartel leader Vusimuzi “Cat” Matlala — Mogotsi claimed that he was in fact investigating Matlala. He was also, he said, investigating corruption within Crime Intelligence.
In his evidence, Mogotsi sought to turn the tables on the “narrative” the commission has heard so far: of a sophisticated criminal cartel that had penetrated the criminal justice system, going as far up as deputy police commissioner Shadrack Sibiya and police minister Senzo Mchunu.
Mogotsi sought to paint a different picture: the real villains within law enforcement were Mkhwanazi, Khumalo and national police commissioner Fannie Masemola.
However, on Wednesday, when Mogotsi was cross-examined by evidence leader Matthew Chaskalson SC, Chaskalson suggested that misdirection tactics can go both ways.
“What I want to put to you today is that your allegations about General Mkhwanazi … strike me as a misdirection tactic,” he said.
Mogotsi testified on Tuesday that he had been approached by late deputy national police commissioner Sindile Mfazi, and reporting to two “handlers”, he had in August last year introduced himself to Mfazi’s successor, Shadrack Sibiya, he told the commission. Sibiya, though distrustful at first, agreed that he could continue with his two “infiltration operations” — the Matlala tender and Crime Intelligence corruption.
“How we want to assist this commission, there will be a drastic change especially in Crime Intelligence. As we go on, we will be able to get the picture, the actual picture, as to actually why are we here, why there is this commission, as we go on,” he said.
In seeking to paint this “actual” picture, Mogotsi made various startling claims. One of these was that in 2023 he received information of “a real, real suspicion, that Lt-Gen Mkhwanazi was recruited by the Central Intelligence Agency, the American one, and he actively worked for them”.
Mkhwanazi had been “activated” as an agent after South Africa took Israel to the International Court of Justice, his sources said. “There was an apprehension that the South African government may hold the output of coal via the Richards Bay point port terminal. And the offtake portion of this coal route was owned by Israeli interests,” he said.
Asked by commissioners the basis for suspecting Mkhwanazi was a CIA agent, Mogotsi said it was because Mkhwanazi had been trained in America. He admitted that this was “double hearsay”, but he said that was how things worked in intelligence gathering.
Inquiry chairperson, retired justice Mbuyiseli Madlanga, said: “I will tell you that I actually hold a degree from the United States of America, does that make me a CIA operative?”
“I cannot say that,” replied Mogotsi.
It got worse on Wednesday during cross-examination. Chaskalson put “a couple of facts” to Mogotsi, including that the Richards Bay Coal Terminal was owned by a consortium of more than 10 different mining companies. Each of them had their own export quota and each controlled how that export quota was used. Mogotsi said he was not aware of that.
“What I want to put to you is the notion that you advance in your statement, that the offtake portion of this coal route is owned by Israeli interests, that notion is completely fanciful,” said Chaskalson.
There had never been any indication from government that the Richards Bay Coal Terminal was going to be shut down, he said. On the contrary, in the relevant period, the government was investing millions of rands in improving the rail link to Richards Bay. And, since 2023, the output of Richards Bay Coal Terminal has been increasing steadily.
You see what I want to put to you is that, if you or your handler were genuinely investigating a CIA plot through General Mkhwanazi to protect Israeli interests in the offtake from the Richards Bay Coal Terminal, you’d have been able to discover the facts I’ve just given you in five minutes on the internet. So you wouldn’t have come up with a story that is self-evidently absurd.
— Matthew Chaskalson SC
It was possible, said Mogotsi, he was not conversant with these facts and was “sticking to my investigation”.
“You see what I want to put to you is that, if you or your handler were genuinely investigating a CIA plot through General Mkhwanazi to protect Israeli interests in the offtake from the Richards Bay Coal Terminal, you’d have been able to discover the facts I’ve just given you in five minutes on the internet. So you wouldn’t have come up with a story that is self-evidently absurd,” said Chaskalson.
Mogotsi said investigations didn’t work like that and anyone can create a website and say the opposite.
On Tuesday, Mogotsi claimed that all his interactions with Matlala, of which the commission has heard much, were about him getting close to Matlala, in line with instructions from his “handlers” to investigate the corrupt tender awarded to Matlala by the SAPS.
In this, he had to create the impression that he was close to Mchunu and had his ear. But “I was neither an associate nor a friend of Mchunu, I regarded him and I still do as a comrade,” he said.
However, Matlala had told him things, he said. They had met on December 7 2024 and at this meeting Matlala had told him that “these people are very ungrateful” because they expected Matlala, as a service provider, to pay Masemola R25m and Cele R10m. He had already paid Masemola R5m and Cele R2m, Matlala told him.
This contrasts with the evidence from Witnesses B and C on what Matlala had told them on the day he was arrested: that he had paid money, millions, to Sibiya, for the contract.
He also told the commission that Matlala had called him from prison “very furious”, reminding him of a conversation they had earlier, where Matlala had told him that he had found someone who may solve all his problems. “And he said, I went to see General Mkhwanazi’s house. And I also gave him something. He was talking about money.”
Chaskalson suggested on Wednesday that his allegation of Matlala paying bribes to Masemola and Mkhwanazi were “another misdirection tactic”.
“We’ve been through Mr Matlala’s cellphone and he is hardly discrete about his improper relationships with senior SAPS members in his Whatsapp communications. We’ve seen plenty of evidence in the chats of Matlala paying SAPS members to assist him,” said Chaskalson.
If he was paying bribes to Mkhwanazi or Masemola, there should have been “some sign of them in the chats”, said Chaskalson. He suggested to Mogotsi that these bribe claims were also untrue.
But Mogotsi insisted that Matlala had told him these things. He said there was a machine that could delete certain messages from phones and Matlala’s phone could have been tampered with, so that “the cellphone will only suit the narrative of the persons who had the phone first”.
At this point, commissioner Sesi Baloyi SC intervened and said it was a “concern” that Mogotsi was making allegations about the payment of these bribes with no facts to back them up.
Mogotsi’s cross-examination continues on Thursday.
Crédito: Link de origem