EFF leader Julius Malema has emerged as a key figure in an alleged quid pro quo relationship involving suspended crime intelligence deputy head Maj-Gen Feroz Khan and alleged cigarette smuggler Mohammadh Sayed.
Evidence presented at the Madlanga commission this week raised questions about Malema having pushed for Khan not to appear before parliament’s ad hoc committee investigating allegations of infiltration of the criminal justice system.
Evidence led before the commission, derived from WhatsApp messages extracted from Khan’s cellphone, places Malema at the centre of alleged interactions involving Khan and Sayed.
Khan was arrested in May for allegedly operating an illicit precious metals syndicate alongside Gauteng Hawks head Maj-Gen Ebrahim Kadwa. He is on R20,000 bail and is due to appear in the Kempton Park magistrate’s court on Tuesday.
This week’s revelations may have shed more light on Malema’s relationship with Khan, which has been under scrutiny and is believed to have involved favours and state tenders.
Although Malema denied any wrongdoing in an affidavit submitted to the commission, evidence portrays a pattern which involves a possible exchange of favours.
I would really want to get a motivation on Gen Khan [to be called to testify] ... I really do not understand. There was nothing solid that suggested he should be brought to our attention
— Julius Malema
Malema repeatedly opposed proposals to have Khan appear before the parliamentary committee after KwaZulu-Natal police commissioner Lt-Gen Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi mentioned Khan’s name several times in his testimony.
“I would really want to get a motivation on Gen Khan [to be called to testify] ... I really do not understand. There was nothing solid that suggested he should be brought to our attention,” Malema told the committee.
While the MK Party and others argued and pushed that Khan should testify, Malema maintained there was no justification for calling him, as he felt it would be a waste of time.
Malema argued that Khan was among the “people we can do without”, saying the committee already had an extensive potential witness list.
“There’s nothing fundamental that says we need Gen Khan. I hold no brief for him,” Malema said.
He said the committee should focus on issues that would help restore confidence in South Africa’s criminal justice system rather than what he described as peripheral matters.
“For us as leaders, it is to separate those petty issues from the real issues that will help restore the image of the criminal justice system. It is not helping what we are trying to do,” he said. “We have nothing on Khan except that he went to do a good job and got exonerated at the disciplinary hearing,” Malema said.
The committee ultimately decided not to call Khan. However, this week it emerged that there could have been other motives at play.
Evidence led at the commission showed that Khan allegedly supplied questions that were later asked by the EFF in parliament of then police minister Bheki Cele and former inspector general of intelligence Setlhomamaru Dintwe.
Evidence leader Matthew Chaskalson SC presented messages showing that on June 10 2021 Sayed forwarded six WhatsApp messages which he said originated from Malema.
Among them was an alleged request, relayed through Sayed, for Khan to ensure that leaders of Operation Dudula were arrested. It is unclear if this request led to direct action.
At the time, Malema was publicly at odds with Operation Dudula, whose members led campaigns against illegal immigration.
“The second [message] was a picture of an Operation Dudula poster, in which Operation Dudula was threatening to remove all illegal foreign nationals by force and was calling for a meeting on June 16,” Chaskalson told the commission while reading from the WhatsApp exchanges.
According to the evidence, Malema allegedly wanted Khan to facilitate police action against Operation Dudula, including arrests at a planned gathering in Soweto.
Introducing the messages to Khan, Sayed wrote: “From Juju.”
“So essentially what Mr Sayed is communicating is that he has been asked by Mr Malema to forward the first five messages to Gen Khan,” Chaskalson said while leading evidence.
Khan is in a Johannesburg hospital after an apparent attempt on his life on the eve of his scheduled appearance before the commission. He is said to be sedated and cannot instruct his lawyers
Malema denied participating in any plot to remove Dintwe or engaging in any wrongdoing. He said that as an MP he routinely received information from a variety of sources, sometimes confidentially, to enable him to perform his oversight duties.
Khan is in a Johannesburg hospital after an apparent attempt on his life on the eve of his scheduled appearance before the commission. He is said to be sedated and cannot instruct his lawyers.
The commission also heard evidence suggesting Malema was allegedly involved in efforts to remove Dintwe.
According to the evidence, on June 10 2021 Khan sent Sayed draft parliamentary questions targeting Dintwe, allegedly with the expectation that Malema would ensure the EFF submitted them in parliament.
The questions focused on Dintwe’s relationship with convicted drug smuggler Timmy Marimuthu and whether Dintwe had been compromised by him.
Further draft questions for Cele were allegedly prepared by Khan, routed through Sayed and later returned to Khan in their final form before being asked in parliament.
Chaskalson told the commission that the alleged strategy was to “trap” Dintwe in order to create grounds for his removal.
When Sayed asked whether Khan was satisfied with the parliamentary questions, Khan allegedly replied: “Excellent bro, let us go to war. When are they sending it to him?”
Chaskalson said the WhatsApp exchanges demonstrated that the real objective was to engineer Dintwe’s removal. Another message from Khan allegedly read: “This [question] should get him to lie and in return we can ask for his removal because he lied.”
Chaskalson submitted that “the real purpose of these questions was not to establish whether the inspector-general has a relationship of any nature with Marimuthu, but rather to trap the inspector-general into lying in an answer to parliament and then use that alleged lie to orchestrate his removal.”
The commission heard evidence that Khan allegedly played a key role in facilitating various SAPS and National Treasury tenders involving Sayed and another intermediary identified as suspended SAPS official Molefe Fani, who is also a former Treasury procurement official.
It has also emerged that Khan was facilitating state tenders for Sayed and helped Malema with details of the VBS Bank curator.
Malema had also allegedly asked for assistance with a fleet management tender and appears to have granted political protection to Khan while he underwent an internal disciplinary hearing at crime intelligence.
Sayed had also asked for assistance in relation to police cases and police action against other cigarette companies.
The commission, which is expected to hear evidence from alleged underworld figure Vusimusi “Cat” Matlala in the coming week, was on Thursday granted an extension by President Cyril Ramaphosa.
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