On Wednesday, the Madlanga commission heard testimony from Brigadier Lesiba Mokoena, section head of the tactical operations management section at the Hawks.
Mokoena was there to explain the Hawks’ presence at Katiso “KT” Molefe’s house the day Molefe was arrested, even though it was not their operation.
The commission earlier heard testimony from Captain Maxwell Wanda, who said the large number of Hawks members at the scene pointed to interference.
On the day, Mokoena was attending the Hawks’ excellence awards, along with former Hawks head Godfrey Lebeya and Mokoena’s divisional commissioner, Lieutenant-General Dumisani Patrick Mbotho.
Hawks dispatched
Mokoena said Mbotho called him to say that Lebeya had approached him to inquire about Mokoena’s operational team activities.
“General Mbotho said Lebeya had just received a call to say there are allegations that there are members alleging to be from the Hawks in Sandhurst and they are also alleging that they are with Lebeya on the premises and wanted to search.
General Mbotho instructed me to verify the members. I contacted Captain Kruger and another member. General Mbotho sent me the address on WhatsApp.
“I contacted Captain [Barry] Kruger, forwarded him the address and told him the instructions.”
According to Kruger’s statement, he told Mokoena that he was not in a position to address the matter.
Kruger had just returned from an operation in Rustenburg and was in Pretoria North when he received the instructions from Mokoena.
ALSO READ: Presence of ‘aggressive’ Hawks members at Katiso Molefe’s house ‘concerning’
He apparently told Mokoena that he could not attend to the matter due to heavy traffic, the tyres of the car he was driving were not in good condition and that he didn’t have blue lights or sirens to navigate traffic.
Kruger said he was also on the way to another operation outside Gauteng.
Mokoena said he did not recall Kruger informing him of all these details. He only recalls Kruger telling him about the traffic, to which he told him to “push”.
This became a point of discussion among the commissioners, who questioned Mokoena about why he insisted on having Kruger attend to the matter when he clearly said he could not.
The commissioners suggested Mokoena could have called the police in Sandton to attend to the matter instead.
Mokoena said Mbotho never told him who had alerted Lebeya about the “fake Hawks” at Molefe’s house.
We later learned it was businessman Malcolm X who tipped Lebeya about the “fake Hawks”.
WhatsApp messages
Mokoena said Mbotho then sent him the registration number of an Audi at Molefe’s house. Another WhatsApp message from Mbotho just explained that there was also a black BMW X5 at Molefe’s house.
Mbotho kept updating Mokoena about the scene.
“It is my assumption that there was a person who was communicating with Lebeya. Lebeya told Mbotho, who then told me the information.”
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Shortly after receiving instructions to verify the members at Molefe’s house, Kruger created a WhatsApp group that included Mokoena and other members.
Mokoena was quick to deny his participation in the group. This, despite screenshots showing he had indeed sent messages to that WhatsApp group. Mokoena posts as “Brig Kleintjie” on the WhatsApp group
In one of the WhatsApp messages, Kruger informs Mokoena that he had confirmed that the operation at Molefe’s house was legitimate.
However, Mokoena only instructed Kruger to withdraw an hour later.
In his defence, he said he did not see the message that Kruger had sent to the group as he was only focused on the phone calls between the two [Kruger and Mokoena].
At this point, he was still denying his participation in the group.
“Is the reason [you’re denying participating in the group] not that you find it difficult to explain why, after it had been confirmed with you that it was a legitimate operation, you did not immediately call off the Hawks?” retired judge Madlanga asked him.
“No, it’s not like that,” he said.
Video call
During his testimony, Wanda said he spoke to Mokoena using a black man’s phone to explain why the Hawks members were there.
However, Mokoena said he spoke to Wanda using Kruger’s phone.
Mokoena said he did not know the black man in question.
Furthermore, Kruger, in his statement, did not talk about giving Wanda his phone to talk to Mokoena.
The commissioners questioned this, as Mokoena insisted it was Kruger’s phone he called, not the black man’s.
Mokoena further informed the commission that he only dispatched Kruger and one other colleague to attend to the situation at Molefe’s house.
ALSO READ: Madlanga commission hears how Katiso ‘KT’ Molefe is ‘a general’s person’
“My expectation was for them to follow the instructions and let me know what was happening at the address. He didn’t expect the two members to add more,” he said.
“If it was supposed to come to the request of additional members, they should have first indicated to me so that I can add additional members, unless they arrived at the scene and faced a dangerous position, then they can say, ‘now we’re faced with this, what can we do’.
“Procedurally, they should have indicated to me first if they wanted additional members.”
He said he was not aware of the additional members who went to the house. Kruger never told him about the additional members either.
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