South Africa: New SAPS Task Team Is a Start, but Only a Small Step Toward Justice for Police Corruption in SA

10 February 2026
Daily Maverick (Johannesburg)
By David Bruce

Allegations against the Ekurhuleni-based group expose major gaps in the current approach to overseeing and investigating police corruption.

Under direction from President Cyril Ramaphosa, the South African Police Service (SAPS) has set up a task team to investigate alleged crimes identified by the Madlanga Commission. A 29 January 2026 statement from the Presidency named 14 individuals against whom "there is prima facie evidence of wrongdoing" and who are to be investigated by the task team.

The Madlanga Commission was established in August 2025 to examine allegations of corrupt relationships between crime bosses and senior politicians and the police in SA. Five of the individuals named by the Presidency are SAPS and Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation (Hawks) personnel with alleged links to organised crime figures or other allegedly corrupt senior SAPS members.

The other nine are allegedly part of a local corruption network in the Ekurhuleni metropolitan area, east of Johannesburg. They include current or former members of the Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Police Department (EMPD), senior Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Municipality personnel, and the head of an Ekurhuleni-based private security company.

Among those named is Julius Mkhwanazi, acting head of the EMPD until he was suspended in November 2025. (Julius Mkhwanazi should not be confused with Lieutenant-General Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi, whose allegations gave rise to the establishment of...

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