An explosive affidavit from a popular DJ who survived an attempted assassination has lifted the lid on a high-stakes world of drug-dealing centred on South Africa’s night-club scene, in which gang bosses routinely order hits against anyone who gets on the wrong side of them.
Following years of speculation that the November 2022 killing of popular DJ and club owner Oupa Sefoka, also known as DJ Sumbody, was drug-related, the Sunday Times can exclusively reveal the link to a consignment of drugs stolen from a police station in KwaZulu-Natal.
According to a police witness with direct knowledge of events leading to the murder in Woodmead, Johannesburg, Sefoka might have died for simply having made an introduction.
A statement by Pretoria’s DJ Vettys, real name Seunkie Mokubung, has lifted the veil on a “DJ killing spree” that turned the capital’s entertainment circuit, as well as other parts of Gauteng, into a graveyard.
In the statement Mokubung reveals to police that attempted-murder accused Vusimusi “Cat” Matlala had confirmed to him a hit had been ordered on him. Matlala, now on trial on several charges of attempted murder and conspiracy, is in a C-Max prison in Kokstad, KwaZulu-Natal.
Mokubung, who describes himself as a close friend of Sefoka from childhood until “his untimely death”, gave the statement as part of the police investigation into the attempted hit on him in 2024 that left him with serious wounds.
Heavy Pablo tried to sell those drugs to Ralph, and in turn Ralph informed Mswati’s society that the people who were introduced to him by DJ Sumbody were the ones who stole the drugs
— Seunkie Mokubung, aka DJ Vettys
His affidavit is the first time Cape Town underworld boss Ralph Stanfield, who was Sefoka’s business partner in a Cape Town club, has been linked to the search for the R200m consignment of cocaine that was stolen from police custody in KwaZulu-Natal in November 2021.
In the statement Mokubung revealed that Sefoka, along with taxi boss "Joe Ferrari” Sibanyoni, was a member of a “society”, or stokvel, that brought together taxi bosses, entertainers and underworld figures. This group, called “Money Talks”, was at loggerheads with a rival society led by the late Jotham “King Mswazi” Msibi, of which Stanfield was a member.
Mokubung says Sefoka introduced Stanfield, his partner in Ayepyep Lifestyle Lounge in Cape Town, to rapper Thulani “Heavy Pablo” Msimang, who later attempted to sell Stanfield some of the cocaine that had been stolen in KwaZulu-Natal.
The drug consignment had allegedly belonged to a member of Msibi’s society before police seized it. When Msimang offered to sell the cocaine to Stanfield, Stanfield allegedly informed the group that Msimang was behind the theft of the drugs from police custody.
This revelation, Mokubung claims, triggered a revenge cycle that led to the murder not only of Msimang but also of Sefoka, who had made the introduction to Stanfield.
“It is alleged that Heavy Pablo tried to sell those drugs to Ralph, and in turn Ralph informed Mswati’s society that the people who were introduced to him by DJ Sumbody were the ones who stole the drugs, and they were selling them to him,” said Mokubung.
“Then the killing spree of the DJs started, including the killing of my friends DJ Sumbody and Heavy Pablo, and also an attempt on my life.”
Then the killing spree of the DJs started, including the killing of my friends DJ Sumbody and Heavy Pablo, and also an attempt on my life.
— Seunkie Mokubung, aka DJ Vettys
Sefoka and Msimang were killed in night-time shootings eight months apart in 2022.
Police have linked the stolen consignment of drugs to several other murders of entertainers in Gauteng, including those of Hector “DJ Vintos” Buthelezi, who was killed in March 2022 in Orlando East, Soweto, and Sandile “DJ Citi Lyts” Mkhize, who was shot eight times in what was initially described as a botched hijacking in Dube, Soweto, in the same year.
Mkhize was ambushed and killed, along with two bodyguards, in the early hours of November 20 2022 while driving back from playing a set at a News Cafe in the area. Police at the time said they found more than 40 bullet casings at the scene, most of them from an AK47 assault rifle.
Police have arrested Katiso “KT” Molefe, Michael Pula Tau, Tiego Floyd Mabusela and Musa Kekana for the Sefoka murder, while the guns used have been linked to several other murders and attempted murders, including those of Buthelezi and Mokubung.
Mokubung’s version ties in with the evidence of KwaZulu-Natal police commissioner Lt-Gen Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi to parliament’s ad hoc committee on police corruption. He said the stolen drugs had ended up in the hands of some entertainers and were circulated in Gauteng nightclubs.
“The picture you’re going to see when matters get to court is that this one thought he is clever by stealing this one’s drugs, and started selling them, and this one then killed him,” the Sowetan newspaper quoted him as saying at the time.
Mkhwanazi also told the committee that the drugs were stolen from the police storage room during a night when there was load-shedding. “But it so happened in that case that the drugs were entered into the register of the police station, booked out at the same time, transported to Port Shepstone and locked in the offices of the Hawks that had no-one guarding it,” he said.
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