During dramatic testimony at the Madlanga Commission, former top police official General Bheki Mkhwanazi revealed shocking allegations of political interference within South Africa’s law enforcement structures.

He implicated the late Minister of Police, Nathi Mthethwa, as having played a direct role in attempts to shield powerful individuals from criminal prosecution.

According to Mkhwanazi, a senior intelligence officer – identified only as “Julie” – had initially authored a letter recommending that an influential figure named “Muli” be charged with criminal offences.

Mkhwanazi explained that she had read the case file thoroughly and had herself concluded that charges were necessary.

But soon afterward, she tried to retract the letter.

“When I asked her, ‘Why do you want to withdraw the letter of a criminal case? You yourself said Muli must go and face the music,’ she told me, ‘No, no, no.

It’s my career on the line.

I made a wrong decision.

I should not have said Muli must be charged,’” Mkhwanazi told the commission.

To Mkhwanazi, this was not an innocent change of mind.

“It meant she had touched the wrong people in the higher echelons of either the police structures or in government – people who did not want Muli to be charged,” he said.

“And I refused to withdraw the letter.”

Shortly thereafter, Mkhwanazi says he received a direct phone call from Minister Mthethwa himself, summoning him to a meeting at the minister’s residence in Waterkloof.

“When I arrived there,” Mkhwanazi testified, “the Inspector-General of Intelligence was sitting on one side of the table, Mr.

TTO on the other side.

The Minister said to me that I had forced the Inspector-General to write the letter saying Muli was wrong and that the matter must go to court.”

Mkhwanazi told the Commission he pushed back forcefully.

“I said, ‘No, Minister.

Advocate [Julie] is an old woman.

She is an advocate – how could I point a gun at her and force her to write a letter? That letter was written in her office.

She is not even the author.

The real author is Advocate Jay Govender, an experienced prosecutor working in that office.

She drafted the letter, not me, not the Inspector-General.’”

According to Mkhwanazi, Mthethwa then suggested stopping any disciplinary cases against “Lulli,” another key figure in the matter – something Mkhwanazi flatly refused to do.

“If we talk about political interference,” Mkhwanazi told the commission, “that was the worst I had ever experienced.”

He described his own state of mind at the time.

“Commissioner, I came from specialized operations.

The only thing I knew was chasing criminals.

Then I was promoted to become the Acting National Commissioner and suddenly I was confronted with this.

I said to myself, ‘This is not what I signed up for when I joined the police.

This cannot be right.’

The Minister cannot give me these kinds of instructions.”

Then, in words that stunned the room, he looked directly at the panel and recalled his response to Mthethwa: “I said, ‘Minister, maybe you brought me into this position thinking you could use me as a pawn – perhaps because of my age or whatever reason.

But you are wrong.

I am not going to do it.’”

Mkhwanazi’s testimony paints a vivid picture of a police leadership under enormous political pressure, where decisions to charge or not charge suspects could hinge less on evidence than on careers, loyalty, and power.

His allegations against the late Minister Mthethwa suggest that some of South Africa’s most sensitive cases were not just about crime, but about influence at the very top of government.

This extraordinary testimony raises difficult questions about the independence of the police and the possibility of systemic interference at the highest levels.

It suggests that what the public sees as a justice process may in fact be carefully managed to protect the powerful – a charge that strikes at the heart of public trust in law enforcement.