KwaZulu-Natal Police Commissioner Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi has revealed that the province’s political killings task team was brought in to assist with a high profile murder investigation in Gauteng.
He was testifying during the opening day of public hearings at the Madlanga Commission of Inquiry in Pretoria on 17 September.
According to Mkhwanazi, the request for support came from Gauteng’s intelligence head, Dumisani Khumalo, after detectives and prosecutors working on the case began receiving threats.
The matter concerned the assassination of Vereeniging engineer Armand Swart, who was killed in what investigators believe was a case of mistaken identity.
Swart’s company had previously filed a whistleblower report to Transnet about price inflation, raising concerns that the killing may have been linked to organised crime networks.
Mkhwanazi read from a letter sent to him by the senior public prosecutor, which detailed how much the accused were allegedly paid for the murder.
He told the commission that three suspects had been arrested, all believed to be part of a serious organised crime syndicate, and that almost one million rand had been offered for the hit.
With threats mounting against the original investigation team, it was decided that the KwaZulu-Natal task team would take over the case to ensure the safety of those involved and to push forward with the probe.
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