By Johnathan Paoli
Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Police Department (EMPD) head of Media and Public Relations Unit, Lieutenant Colonel Kelebogile Thepa, delivered some of the commission’s most chilling testimony on Friday as she detailed the violent attack she believes was linked to her role in responding to media inquiries about the now-infamous “blue lights” scandal implicating suspended EMPD Brigadier Julius Mkhwanazi.
Visibly emotional, Thepa told the commission that three armed men confronted her in July 2023 while she was returning from visiting her late mother’s gravesite.
The men, she said, demanded her phone, uttered work-related threats, and made it clear she was being targeted because of her involvement in handling media questions about the scandal.
“He cocked a firearm and pointed it at me. What hurt me the most were the things that were said… all of it was work-related. They said I was a problem at work,” she recalled.
The attackers shoved her across the car seats, hit her with a firearm, and attempted to drive off with her inside before abandoning her in Ivory Park after she lost consciousness.
“It was clear they did not want the vehicle or the money. They wanted my phone and information,” she said.
Despite opening a kidnapping case, Thepa testified that police initially refused to process the docket after she asked for her relative’s vehicle not to be taken to the pound, fearing it would be stripped for parts.
Before recounting the attack, Thepa charted her career as a law graduate, former journalist and the first woman appointed EMPD spokesperson in 2021.
She emphasised that her role required her to represent the department publicly and respond to media queries.
Everything changed on 2 February 2023, she testified, when journalist Jeff Wicks called seeking comment on explosive documents allegedly showing that Mkhwanazi had allowed tenderpreneur Vusimusi “Cat” Matlala’s security company vehicles to be registered as EMPD cars and fitted with blue lights reserved for police.
Wicks sent her a 16 October 2021 letter on an official EMPD letterhead, bearing Mkhwanazi’s signature and purporting to formalise a working relationship with Matlala’s company.
He also forwarded Instagram footage showing Matlala’s then-wife driving to OR Tambo International Airport with flashing blue lights.
“The alleged documents looked very, very suspicious. How does one reduce to writing something addressed ‘to whom it may concern’ on an EMPD letterhead?” she said.
Thepa immediately approached then acting EMPD chief Revo Spies, who told her the arrangement was unlawful and should be investigated.
Wicks’ final queries, she said, exposed how Matlala’s cars had been fraudulently registered as EMPD vehicles.
The resulting public scandal spiralled, triggering widespread media demands to know what action would be taken against Mkhwanazi.
As requests intensified, Thepa urged that the City of Ekurhuleni issue a comprehensive statement from the EMPD and then city manager Imogen Mashazi.
Instead, she said, she was instructed “to back off” by city spokesperson Zweli Dlamini, who insisted Mashazi’s office would handle further communication.
Dlamini later publicly claimed that the luxury vehicles driven by Matlala’s company belonged to the EMPD, a statement Thepa said was false and made no sense.
Meanwhile, the Independent Police Investigative Directorate (IPID) began probing the matter, and Thepa was asked to provide a statement.
Fearing reprisals, she initially hesitated, but after assurances from the investigator, she complied; only to be later told that Mkhwanazi had labelled her a dirty cop and invoked an unrelated, inactive defeating-the-ends-of-justice case to discredit her.
“It became quite clear that Brigadier Mkhwanazi carried ill will. He will do anything to discredit anybody who comes forward,” she testified.
Later, Spies tracked a grey Audi that had been following her to someone with the surname “Mkhwanazi”.
She described herself as a “crawling ant” in a department where even senior officers such as Spies could not secure protection.
Her ordeal, she said, showed how deeply the blue-lights scandal rattled powerful networks.
The commission continues.
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