VIDEO | Mogotsi dismisses Big Five cartel claims as public deception

Police minister Senzo Mchunu’s alleged associate Brown Mogotsi has rubbished as a ploy to mislead the public claims by the crime intelligence head that there exists a Big Five cartel that deals in, among other things, kidnapping and tender fraud.

He also said sports minister Gayton McKenzie’s assertions about the existence of international mafia groups operating in SA were not true.

Testifying at the Madlanga commission on Tuesday, Mogotsi debunked the evidence presented before the commission by head of crime intelligence Lt-Gen Dumisani Khumalo that there is a drug cartel which has captured the criminal justice system. According to Khumalo, Vusimuzi “Cat” Matlala and Katiso “KT” Molefe belong to this cartel.

Khumalo said the big five have already penetrated the political sphere.

During McKenzie’s visit to the home of the late Nathi Mthethwa in KwaZulu-Natal, following his suspected suicide in Paris, France, he also alluded to crime cartels operating in SA.

He warned about the growing influence of international mafia groups and vowed to intensify efforts to dismantle them. He identified syndicates from Russia, Serbia, the Czech Republic, Japan (Yakuza), Mozambique, Angola, Ethiopia and Nigeria as major threats involved in kidnappings, murder and other serious crimes.

However, in his testimony at the commission, Mogotsi said: “Big [five] cartel...the minister [of sports, arts and culture], Gayton McKenzie, said there is a mafia. Chinese mafia, Russian Mafia... He spoke of so many things, but in this report of the Big Five, there is not even one cartel [that is] Chinese [or] Russian – nothing.

“They just orchestrate things to mislead the public,” he said.

Sowetan