Suspended Sedibeng District Municipality top cop Brig Abraham Nkhwashu has told the Madlanga commission he met alleged cartel member Katiso “KT” Molefe through a meeting set up by his “traditionally adopted” sister.
According to Nkwashu, the sister is Molefe’s wife, and in the meeting Molefe asked for assistance in the bail process of Michael Tau, a former police-officer-turned-rogue.
Testifying on Wednesday, Nkwashu said Molefe’s wife, Fundiswa Nyangule, had facilitated the meeting between him and the criminally accused Molefe at an Alberton restaurant in 2024.
He said he was meeting Molefe for the first time, despite Molefe and Nyangule having been married since 2021.
Nkhwashu said he had met with Nyangule in Alberton in late June 2024 after she reached out to discuss settling a deceased family member’s estate.
During the conversation, he said Nyangule shifted the discussion to Nkhwashu meeting her husband.
“Fundiswa said she was not happy that I had never met her husband, Katiso, given her relationship with me, and she would like me to meet him.
“I had personal reasons, among them my loyalty to Sazi [Fundiswa’s late husband] and the earlier reasons I stated, including that I was unhappy that she had married a married man, but I agreed,” he said.
Nkhwashu said the next day he met Molefe and they discussed their careers and his upcoming retirement from the South African Police Service.
“He told me he had a large tender in Matjhabeng and he would need security personnel to work there. He said if I were interested after retirement, I could consider working with him, given my experience as a police officer,” he said.
“As we were concluding the meeting, he [Molefe] told me a friend of his had been arrested and he wanted to know whether the state would oppose bail as he intended to pay bail for him.
“I immediately stopped him and said, ‘I do not discuss work-related matters with anyone, not even my wife. If we are to have a proper relationship, my work must remain off-limits’.”
Allegations against Nkwashu are that he had attempted to seize the murder docket of Vereeniging engineer Armand Swart and later threatened investigators in the case.
He is also accused of interfering in the case by making an unauthorised prison visit in an unregistered vehicle to deliver supplies to murder-accused Molefe.
Swart was shot more than 20 times in what is believed to have been a case of mistaken identity. Tau is one of the people arrested for the murder.
The hearing continues.
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