Madlanga Commission resumes hearings in 2026: What to expect today and how to watch live

Friday 3 July 2026 — The Madlanga Commission of Inquiry sits again today at the Brigitte Mabandla Justice College in Pretoria for Day 132 of its investigation into criminality, political interference and corruption in the criminal justice system. It is a scheduled sitting day but an unusual one.

Businessman Tumelo Nku, the Aeroton cocaine bust witness who had been on the stand since 25 June, was pulled indefinitely by chairperson Justice Mbuyiseli Madlanga on Thursday over what he described only as “security concerns”. Suspended Crime Intelligence deputy head Major-General Feroz Khan, who was meant to open his evidence on Wednesday, remains critical at Netcare Milpark Hospital’s ICU after Sunday’s Houghton shooting and cannot give his legal team instructions.

That leaves the commission with two front-page witnesses down at once, a live registry gap the chair has not yet publicly filled, and a subpoena in the diary for alleged “Big Five” cartel figure Vusimuzi “Cat” Matlala to appear on Tuesday 7 July.

Coverage will be updated as today’s witness or documentary bundle is confirmed.

What the Madlanga Commission is investigating

The Madlanga Commission was established to probe claims that senior police officials and politically connected business figures infiltrated law-enforcement structures, undermining investigations into political killings and organised crime.

Central to the inquiry are allegations made by KwaZulu-Natal police commissioner Lt-Gen Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi, who accused senior figures — including suspended police minister Senzo Mchunu — of political interference and links to criminal networks.

The commission’s work has been divided into phases, with the current stage allowing individuals implicated during earlier hearings to respond to the allegations against them.

This week at the commission

Monday 29 June — Day 128. Businessman Tumelo Nku returned to the stand for the Aeroton drug bust, third day on the strand, with a materially different account after filing a second supplementary statement. He told commissioners a “hard chat” with his spiritual leader had prompted him to be honest. He now framed the R300 million bust as part of a “broader business scheme”, said the late former deputy defence minister Kebby Maphatsoe, a distant relative, had introduced him to a trafficker known as “Alpha”, and suggested Gauteng traffic chief Samuel Mashaba may have wanted to “take” the cocaine.

Justice Madlanga said Nku had still not come clean. Once Nku concluded, forensic investigator Paul O’Sullivan was called and opened with his “whistleblower with dirty hands” line against KZN police commissioner Lt-Gen Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi, drawing on a 16 January 2026 affidavit by Limpopo Ipid provincial head Humbulani Khuba describing an alleged 2018 Pretoria hotel meeting at which Mkhwanazi and Crime Intelligence Maj-Gen Obed Nemutanzhela allegedly pressed Khuba to help implicate former Ipid boss Robert McBride and O’Sullivan in wrongdoing.

He tied his account to the Louis Vuitton bag allegations involving Mkhwanazi and suspended national commissioner General Fannie Masemola, and the alleged Idac information wall. Separately, SAPS confirmed suspended Crime Intelligence deputy head Maj-Gen Feroz Khan had been shot twice in the abdomen in Houghton on Sunday 28 June and was critical at Milpark; the Hawks, Crime Intelligence, the detective service and the Political Killings Task Team were deployed.

Tuesday 30 June — Day 129. O’Sullivan was stood down after a brief further exchange. MK Party MP Crossby Vusi Shongwe, an alternate member of Parliament’s ad hoc committee on criminality, political interference and corruption in the criminal justice system, was brought forward as the primary witness. He told the commission that his ad hoc-committee scrutiny of Khan triggered a sequence of alleged approaches beginning on 8 March 2026 via intermediaries Londiwe Xulu, Yusuf Kajee and one Imran.

A virtual meeting was arranged from a Durban security firm office at which Khan appeared on video, told him “you are suffocating me” and appeared tearful. Shongwe said he was offered a R2 million security tender at Checkers, R10 million cash and two bulletproof BMWs with tinted windows, with the R10 million to be handed over in Sandton on 10 March, which he did not attend. He said he briefed MK Party leader Jacob Zuma, who was “surprised”, and placed on record an allegation that EFF leader Julius Malema had provided political protection for Khan and hinted at what he characterised as a Khan-Idac cabal.

Wednesday 1 July — Day 130. Khan’s counsel confirmed the general remained unconscious and sedated at Milpark ICU and could not give instructions. The chair tore into a closed-door application filed at 23:04 on the night of the shooting as too vague to entertain, telling counsel the commission was “completely in the dark” and that the application “could go further and I would say it is hopeless”.

He also warned Khan’s legal team about media commentary that had suggested a leak from within the commission. Counsel conceded the application was not ready and formally withdrew it, indicating a fresh in-camera application would be filed once Khan can give instructions. No substitute witness was called. In parallel, in the Pretoria Specialised Commercial Crimes Court, Magistrate Ignatius Petrus du Preez rejected the section 105A eight-years-effective plea-and-sentence agreement on the R228 million SAPS Medicare24 tender as too lenient and ruled that 12 years’ direct imprisonment would be just and appropriate for Cat Matlala on the seven fraud, corruption and money-laundering counts already pleaded. Matter postponed to Monday 13 July; the State and defence must decide by then whether to accept the court’s proposed 12-year sentence.

Thursday 2 July — Day 131. Proceedings started late. At 11:30 the chair announced that Tumelo Nku’s testimony would not proceed, citing “security concerns”, and postponed his evidence indefinitely. No further detail was placed on the record.

Separately the commission confirmed it had subpoenaed Vusimuzi “Cat” Matlala, held at Kgosi Mampuru II Correctional Centre in Pretoria, to appear on Tuesday 7 July 2026. Spokesperson Jeremy Michaels called Matlala a “central figure” in the commission’s investigation.

It is understood Matlala agreed to testify on condition he would not be cross-examined on aspects of the R360 million SAPS Medicare24 tender, his lawyers arguing that questioning on those aspects could affect his ongoing legal proceedings.