I’ve been struggling, like most South Africans, to understand just what the hell is going on in our law enforcement firmament as senior police officers accuse each other of criminality and corruption. It’s colourful and confusing but I think I’ve found at least the core spark of it all.
It’s not quite the Big Bang that might explain the origins of the universe. But the start matters and it’s this: in April 2024 the Crime Intelligence (CI) division appointed a young woman, Dineo Mokwele, as head of technical support services. She was recruited from the IT department at BMW, which makes cars in Rosslyn, outside Pretoria.
On December 31 last year, in the final working hours of the year, police minister Senzo Mchunu sent a directive to the national commissioner of police, Gen Fannie Masemola, instructing him to “immediately” disband the political killings task team (PKTT) in KwaZulu-Natal and operationally led by the provincial commissioner there, Lt-Gen Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi.
On June 26 this year the Independent Directorate Against Corruption (Idac), a unit within the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) run by advocate Andrea Johnson, arrested the head of CI, Lt-Gen Dumisani Khumalo, six other senior CI officers and Mokwele, on charges of fraud.
Idac alleges she falsified her CV and that the officers colluded in her irregular appointment.
From that moment South Africa, in a way, became a different country as once tightly held secrets and rivalries began to pour out into the open — all of which has been of enormous public benefit
Just 10 days later, on July 6 in Durban, Mkhwanazi held a now-celebrated media briefing in which he denounced the arrest of Khumalo and made wide-ranging allegations of criminality in the highest ranks of the police and included Mchunu in his accusations.
From that moment South Africa, in a way, became a different country as once tightly held secrets and rivalries began to pour out into the open — all of which has been of enormous public benefit. Mkhwanazi is regarded with awe around the country even though not everyone is convinced. President Cyril Ramaphosa, unnerved by the accusations, put the police minister on special leave and ordered a commission of inquiry. The National Assembly appointed its own ad-hoc inquiry as well.
Trying to follow both on TV is impossible but if you’re able to keep up with the Mokwele story you’ll stay close, I think, to what matters.
The charge against the head of CI is that he approved the appointment of Mokwele and that she isn’t qualified for the job. That’s a first red flag. A dodgy appointment might trigger an internal disciplinary process but Khumalo was arrested at OR Tambo Airport and forbidden to return to work as a condition of bail. It seems extraordinarily over the top.
But Khumalo was also nominally in overall charge of the PKTT, which is where Mkhwanazi comes in. A court case, now delayed until Februay 2026, will reveal to what extent Mokwele lied about her qualifications. But coming out of IT at BMW in this country is no small beer. The German carmaker houses a vast portion — about one-third — of its global IT power in South Africa, where SAP software engineers are cheap and excellent.
The fact that Mokwele was hired on a monthly package of R55,000 a month led to considerable outrage on social media but it’s not a lot of money. The job was advertised internally and then externally with the rank of brigadier. Idac seems to be offended that she had no policing experience but that is just silly. Former South African Breweries CEO Meyer Kahn had never been near a uniform when he was made head of the police in 1997.
Then again, the fact that Mokwele accepted such a modest salary might tell us she was fairly junior at BMW. Even so, if she worked at the company’s Pretoria manufacturing plant she would have reported directly to BMW group headquarters in Munich and would have picked up, for a young, black South African woman, unparalleled experience.
Watching as much as I could of both Khumalo and Johnson testifying at the commission of inquiry and the ad-hoc committee this week my firm impression is that Johnson is going to struggle to make her charges stick. She may have to load more charges against him — there are reports, for instance, that CI slush funds have been used to buy properties — or create some sort of distraction or drop the case altogether.
That would be catastrophic for the NPA and a victory for Mkhwanazi in particular. It’s obviously still early days and there’ll be many more witnesses. But to my interested, albeit untrained, eye there’s a clear gap opening between Mkhwanazi and Khumalo and the pack trying to trip them up. And, for the moment, that is kind of comforting.
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