The Madlanga Commission of Inquiry has again heard of the exploits of rouge Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Police Department (EMPD) officers and those who assisted them.
Retired EMPD deputy chief Revo Spies was before the commission on Monday where he detailed criminal cases against the department’s officers.
The cases involved the three EMPD officers mentioned by suspended metro police chief Jabulani Mapiyeye in his testimony last week.
Copper cable ‘confiscation’
One of the cases involved the theft of copper cables from a scrapyard in Meyerton — an area well outside of EMPD’s jurisdiction.
CCTV footage viewed by the commission showed two unmarked vehicles arrive at the premises, with a man Spies identified as a plain-clothes officer attempting to jump the gates.
The gate is then opened by the owners of the scrapyard who are then met by at least five metro police officers, some in EMPD uniform and others in civilian clothing.
Spies identified three of the officers as those linked to the crimes mentioned by Mapiyeye on Friday, with EMPD deputy chief Julius Mkhwanazi also part of the group travelling in the unmarked cars.
The officers then confiscated copper cables and second-hand good from the premises under the guise that they were stolen.
Spies said such an operation would not have been approved because the location was outside EMPD jurisdiction, but also that EMPD had no authority to conduct such an operation without the presence of South African Police Service (Saps).
“When it comes to copper or second-hand goods and things like that, we don’t have investigative powers in that matter,” explained Spies.
“We also don’t have powers in terms of the Second-Hand Goods Act to enter a premises to search; it’s one of the shortcomings that we as metro police have,” he added.
Senior management interreference
The alleged copper theft incident was referred to the Independent Police Investigative Directorate (Ipid) but no charges were brought against those implicated, while a whistleblower in the case was found murdered.
In a separate incident, three officers involved in the Meyerton incident were arrested after being accused of stealing 28 cartons of cigarettes from a trader in Benoni.
Spies explained the officers arrested a foreign national and confiscated his goods before leaving him at the side road.
The officers were arrested but the case was later dropped after the complainant could no longer be located.
Spies relayed other incidents where dockets were taken away from control prosecutors, and another instance where now-retired Ekurhuleni City Manager Imogen Mashazi told him and Mapiyeye to “back off” on a civil matter involving the three officers.
He said Mkhwanazi and his allies acted with impunity within the EMPD, an atmosphere facilitated by senior managers within Ekurhuleni municipality.
“There is a situation of fear in the metro police [with] this small group of officers that has completely taken over the city, but with the protection of the city manager, head of HR and head of legal who is protecting them,” Spies told the commission.
EMPD restructuring
He explained that the atmosphere within EMPD worsened after the Ekurhuleni council adopted a resolution to restructure the EMPD in 2024.
Spies said the resolution made the EMPD directly accountable to the city manager and not the metro police chiefs, while erasing his position altogether.
He stated that queries over his future were crudely dismissed, with efforts to remove those who disagree being commonplace.
“When I asked HR, the words directed to me were ‘you will sit here and read newspapers for the next three years until your contract ends’.
“There’s even false reports being generated and created where they tried to push us and get us out of the system and push us aside,” said Spies.
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