GROUNDUP: Ekurhuleni police force employed convicted killers, Parliament told

Vetting of officials employed by the Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Police Department (EMPD) has found that 63 had previous convictions, including convictions for murder, and 55 officials had 72 convictions during service for violent crime, attempted murder, theft, fraud and firearm offences. This follows allegations about criminality at the EMPD that were heard at the ongoing Madlanga Commission.

There are criminal cases against 114 EMPD officials, involving 173 charges registered between October 2014 and December 2025. Almost 60% of these took place in the last four years, and 12 of the charges are for murder.

The vetting process, which began in May, found that pending cases against the officials also included charges of attempted murder, robbery, assault, kidnapping, fraud, corruption, extortion, conspiracy and defeating the ends of justice.

This was disclosed in a draft report presented to Parliament’s Standing Committee on Public Accounts (Scopa) on Tuesday. It follows oversight visits and hearings with Mangaung, Tshwane, Ekurhuleni, Johannesburg and eThekwini metropolitan municipalities since July last year.

The EMPD has been under national scrutiny since its former deputy chief, Julius Mkhwanazi, and other senior officers were linked to organised crime networks. Mkhwanazi is in custody facing a murder charge.

Mkhwanazi was fired by the City of Ekurhuleni in September.

The report before Scopa states the municipality was requested to provide an update on its vetting of EMPD officials as well as the status of investigations, convictions, and pending cases.

A criminal record verification of 3,586 EMPD officials was conducted in May, according to the report before Scopa. The last time this vetting process was done, according to media reports, was in 2022. The process found 275 officers had previous convictions, including for murder, rape, theft and fraud.

Regarding the latest vetting process, the report states it has no clarity on whether officials charged with violent and serious crimes were taken off active duty or stripped of their weapons.

R2.7bn written off

Also within Ekurhuleni law enforcement, the report noted the traffic department wrote off R2.7-billion, 82% of the traffic fines owed to it.

“The collapse in revenue collection was caused by an administrative decision taken at senior management level to abruptly cancel a fully functioning traffic fine management system without a replacement,” states the report.

The “critical IT governance breakdown” in the traffic department appeared to be part of a broader pattern of IT failures at the municipality.

The report states Ekurhuleni’s “IT control environment experienced significant regression, failing to provide reliable assurance over data integrity, security, system availability, and overall operational performance”.

The 2024/25 audit revealed “an estimated R2.5-billion loss due to IT control failures and cyber breaches”, states the report.

Key IT projects have not been properly managed, resulting in delays, underperforming or “entirely unused” projects, and poor management of software licensing.

“The cascading impact of these control failures compromises both the municipality’s operations and financial integrity. The inability to independently verify data integrity or investigate security incidents heightens the risk of unauthorised system overrides, compromised receivables data, cyberattacks, and prolonged service disruptions.”

The report states the municipality reported it was putting “remedial measures” in place, including establishing a 24-hour security operations centre, activating “tamper-proof transaction logs”, and strengthening cybersecurity controls.

Billions lost in misspending

Compared to the other four metros in the report, Ekurhuleni was a relatively mild offender when it came to unauthorised, irregular and fruitless and wasteful (UIFW) expenditure, racking up R137.65-million in irregular expenditure during the 2024/25 financial year. This is against a total of R24.5-billion in UIFW by the five metros as a whole during the same financial year.

Combined with 2023/24, the misspending came to R54-billion. 

Unauthorised expenditure, according to the Auditor-General, is money spent beyond what was budgeted, or allocated for purposes other than those for which it was intended.

Irregular expenditure is money spent outside of legislative prescripts but is not necessarily money wasted or lost through fraud. However, it needs to be investigated by the municipality, as this is often expenditure not compliant with supply chain management procedures, such as procurement without following a competitive bidding process, as well as inadequate contract management.

Fruitless and wasteful expenditure refers to spending that could have been avoided if due care was taken. Examples include interest paid on outstanding invoices and penalties.

The bulk of the billions of rands in UIFW expenditure came from the City of Johannesburg, which in 2024/25 recorded R11.8-billion in unauthorised expenditure within the “core municipality” and its 13 entities such as Johannesburg Water and the Johannesburg Roads Agency.

Johannesburg’s irregular expenditure came to R11-billion that same year, with fruitless and wasteful expenditure coming to R1.7-billion.

Reasonable steps not taken

Across all five metros, the Auditor-General found that no reasonable steps were taken to prevent misspending in any of the three categories. Additionally, investigations to determine whether value for money was obtained, whether fraud or corruption was involved, or who was responsible, were limited.

UIFW expenditure amounting to more than R34-billion was written off by the various municipalities during the 2024/25 financial year. A large portion of the write-offs were from amounts accumulated from previous years, such as the City of Johannesburg writing off R18.5-billion in unauthorised expenditure, leaving its closing balance at R3.7-billion in this category.

All metros failed to properly investigate UIFW spending. But Mangaung, which contributed R1.75-billion in UIFW, was singled out for failing to investigate financial non-compliance and hold officials accountable.

In Mangaung, “Allegations of financial misconduct against officials were neither referred to designated oversight bodies (such as a disciplinary board or independent investigators) nor properly investigated.”

Even in cases where misconduct was proven, there was no “appropriate” disciplinary action, nor were “criminal acts by officials” reported to the SAPS.

The report states the metro told Scopa it had referred several cases of UIFW as well as material irregularities to the Municipal Public Accounts Committee (MPAC) and Financial Disciplinary Board (FDB) for further investigation. These investigations are still ongoing.

It took almost four years for Mangaung’s MPAC to table its first report to council, in December 2025. The MPAC was required to submit bimonthly reports to council from January 2026, but the report states none have been tabled.

While the FDB is reportedly operational and tasked with investigating UIFW, especially on irregular expenditure and overtime, some cases are more than a decade old, and Scopa has “expressed concerns that investigations were dragging without tangible financial recoveries”.

Consequence management

The City of Johannesburg also had disciplinary procedures dating back more than 10 years. Scopa and the Cogta standing committee expressed strong concern about Johannesburg’s UIFW expenditure write-offs, saying these undermined accountability. 

“The reduction in UIFW balance due to write-offs by the council does not make unlawful expenditure lawful and can’t be presented as evidence of improved internal controls and governance,” the committees stated.

MPs insisted that investigations needed to be completed, with sanctions against responsible officials, along with the recovery of losses. Where misconduct was proven, criminal cases needed to be opened.

Scopa and the Cogta standing committee expressed “severe concern and sharp criticism” about eThekwini, which used administrative write-offs on financial statements as a way to avoid enforcing disciplinary action or recovering funds and opening criminal cases against implicated officials.

The joint committees demanded eThekwini provide a full accounting of all write-offs, with breakdowns detailing any financial losses and whether value for money was achieved, along with formal disciplinary steps taken and which cases were referred for criminal prosecution.

“Frustration was expressed at a culture of impunity, noting that relying on regularisations without enforcing blacklisting or consequence management effectively protects corrupt entities and negligent staff at the expense of public funds,” stated the report.

Tshwane, meanwhile, had dismissed a divisional head and a director for procurement irregularities, and had active disciplinary hearings against 20 staff on charges “ranging from qualification fraud and procurement irregularities to stock theft and corruption”.

Charges were also being prepared against “multiple officials”. These included charges for the illegal sale of land, recruitment irregularities, illegal utility connections, and conflict of interest.

Public health and environmental impacts

Since the amendment to the Public Audit Act became effective in April 2019, the Auditor-General has included findings of material irregularities in its audit reports. These identify non-compliance with legislation and suspected fraud that has resulted in, or is likely to result in, material financial losses and significant harm to municipalities and the general public.

Each of the five metros had material irregularities, all of which impacted public health and the environment, predominantly due to non-functioning sewage treatment works polluting rivers.

The worst offender was Mangaung. Only one of its 27 material irregularities has been resolved. It was followed by Johannesburg, which had 21 unresolved material irregularities, with five in Ekurhuleni and three in Tshwane.

The Auditor-General flagged Mangaung, Tshwane, and Johannesburg as having unfunded budgets, raising questions about their viability. DM