CROOKED BLUE LINE: Cocaine, kidnappings and robberies — damning allegations levelled against Joburg metro police

A damning portrait of police corruption emerged at the Madlanga Commission on Monday, 15 September, when Johannesburg Metropolitan Police Department (JMPD) Internal Affairs chief Superintendent Elmarie de Beer took the stand.

De Beer outlined a pattern of alleged syndicate collusion within the ranks, identifying the Tactical Response Unit, Special Projects Unit, and K9 Unit as the department's most heavily implicated divisions.

De Beer said some officers had cultivated informal “informer” networks, with civilians acting as spotters at targeted businesses in return for rewards.

“Based on the pattern Internal Affairs has identified, they are civilians who are typically either employed within a targeted business or stationed outside a business to observe its patterns of activity and are willing to participate in criminal activity for rewards,” she said.

The criminals allegedly focused on lucrative targets: cash-heavy hardware businesses and Chinese suppliers, alongside commodities like copper, gold, diamonds, and precious stones.

“This conduct is not confined to JMPD,” De Beer testified, saying cases typically involved collaboration between members of the JMPD, SAPS and Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation (the Hawks), and buyers or sellers of stolen goods. She added that Internal Affairs was aware of allegations involving JMPD officers and human trafficking or drugs, but there were no formal reports.

Among the senior figures named was retired JMPD officer Phineas Manyama, alleged to have actively shielded criminal syndicates by rerouting officers away from targeted areas. He stepped down in April 2026, evading internal disciplinary action by weeks.

The allegations are similar to those previously heard by the commission about criminal infiltration, collusion and abuse of law-enforcement positions at the Ekurhuleni and Tshwane metropolitan police.

Apart from De Beer’s testimony, the commission has also heard other accusations levelled against JMPD officers – ranging from interference in police operations and theft of seized drugs to suspected syndicate links.

The commission has heard allegations that:

• JMPD K9 Unit supervisor Johannes Mokgatle allegedly called in sick and then used an official vehicle to travel to businessman Katiso “KT” Molefe’s Sandhurst home during a police raid on 6 December 2024, attempting to disrupt his arrest.

• JMPD officers allegedly actively sabotaged the July 2021 Aeroton drug operation by intentionally mismanaging the crime scene to facilitate the theft of R300-million worth of cocaine.

• JMPD officers and criminal syndicate members allegedly colluded in a R14.9-million Killarney gemstone robbery.

Manyama allegedly called the shots 

De Beer’s evidence placed retired Manyama at the centre of allegations about the control of the Tactical Response Unit (TRU).

For years, Manyama served as a superintendent and later headed the TRU, where, according to De Beer, he wielded considerable authority and effectively called the shots.

She alleged that Manyama decided which officers could operate in particular areas and designated certain areas as “no-go” zones for ordinary policing – raising questions about whether policing decisions were being used to protect criminal activity.

Allegations about the former superintendent that came to Internal Affairs’ attention included:

• He arranged for TRU members to escort trucks transporting stolen copper to the criminal syndicate that had organised the theft, in return for a share of the proceeds.

• During an operation against a suspected drug dealer, he instructed TRU members to abandon their car chase of the suspect.

• He instructed TRU members to stand down after they found five bricks of suspected cocaine. The officers allegedly defied the instruction, continued investigating and discovered a further 12 bricks of suspected cocaine at the suspect’s home.

• He protected individuals implicated in the killing of illegal miners, or zama zamas.

The allegations prompted Internal Affairs to seek disciplinary action against Manyama. But, according to De Beer, before the process could be concluded, he retired in April 2026.

There has been no criminal investigation arising from these allegations, De Beer said, explaining that Internal Affairs did not at the time have direct physical evidence linking Manyama to the allegations, but relied on witness accounts.

However, she told the commission that Internal Affairs was aware of additional potential evidence that could support a criminal referral. This included WhatsApp messages exchanged between officers on the day of the aborted car chase.

Abduction and robbery 

Further disturbing evidence from De Beer concerned allegations that three TRU members robbed a Zimbabwean national of about R80,000 she had collected for a family funeral in Zimbabwe. 

According to De Beer, acting on information from an informer, the TRU members searched the woman and her brother outside a shop, took the cash and detained them at Johannesburg Central Police Station, where they were threatened with a fabricated money-laundering charge.

A Hawks member eventually assisted Internal Affairs in arresting the three officers. But a lawyer later sought to withdraw the charges on the complainant’s behalf, and De Beer said the woman has since become unreachable.

Another case involved an alleged R1.5-million robbery, and an investigation that was itself allegedly compromised.

“Inspector Emma Phakoane allegedly arranged for an SPU vehicle to be removed from the Fennel Road fleet yard and handed to a member of Public Order Policing, who allegedly used it, together with a spotter or informer, to rob a businessman of about R1.5-million in cash,” said De Beer.

Days later, De Beer said, Phakoane, Chief Tintswalo Rikhotso and Hawks Captain Mabunda Matimu allegedly offered Hawks investigators R550,000 to compromise the investigation.

Four months later, Phakoane and two others allegedly targeted the same businessman again. Phakoane allegedly assaulted his wife, using a patrol vehicle, after she recognised and tried to photograph the informer.

The matter was eventually resolved by the charge-office commander at Booysens police station, who, according to De Beer, directed that the money be returned to the businessman.

De Beer said, the case illustrated how multiple law-enforcement agencies could become compromised in the same matter: the matter began as an alleged JMPD crime and was then referred to the Hawks for investigation – an investigation that, according to De Beer, was itself compromised. DM