Julius Mkhwanazi denies misleading Madlanga commission to ditch testifying
The Madlanga Commission heard that suspended Ekurhuleni Metro Police Deputy Chief Julius Mkhwanazi may have misrepresented facts when he asked for a postponement of his testimony due to the death of his mother.
Mkhwanazi was due to return before the commission on 23 March, but requested a postponement after informing evidence leader Mahlape Sello that his mother had passed away.
However, proceedings on Tuesday revealed that this claim was under scrutiny, after Sello presented official Home Affairs documents that appear to contradict his version.
The commission heard that Mkhwanazi submitted a death certificate, identity document, and funeral programme, implying that the deceased was his biological mother.
READ: Madlanga Commission: Mkhwanazi’s testimony postponed due to mother’s death
But Sello told the commission that subsequent investigations raised red flags, particularly after it emerged that the woman in question was only ten years older than Mkhwanazi.
“After the postponement was granted, a few days later, in the normal course of collation of documents, these documents were then prepared for filing. That’s when we realised that this person happens to be 10 years older than Mr Mkhwanazi. That raised the issue about whether or not Mr Mkhwanazi lied to the commission, misled this commission in an attempt to avoid appearing before the commission.
"We concluded that he potentially may have done so, but we needed to make our own investigations,” Sello said.
She explained that while some of the documents had been submitted by Mkhwanazi himself, additional records obtained from Home Affairs, including his birth certificate, pointed to a different conclusion about the relationship between him and the deceased.
“It is upon receipt of the documents from Home Affairs that we concluded that he knew that the lady who had passed away was not his mother. He misrepresented that fact to the commission and obtained his extension. It was compounded by the fact that Home Affairs provided his birth certificate, which shows who his parents are,” she said.
Sello further argued that Mkhwanazi continued to contradict official records during his testimony, including claims that the individuals listed as his parents were in fact his grandparents.
On this basis, she submitted that the commission should consider holding him in contempt.
“My submission is that he must be held in contempt for deliberately misleading the commission when he knew that the facts he relied upon to obtain his postponement were false,” she said.
Such a finding could carry criminal consequences, as witnesses are required to be truthful in their engagements with the inquiry.
Mkhwanazi, however, denied misleading the commission, insisting that the woman who passed away raised him and was therefore his mother.
“I’m still saying that she raised me. She’s my mother. Yes, I was not born from her, but she raised me since I was young. I am seeing this birth certificate for the first time in my life. It is an embarrassment for a man of my age to find out about these things,” he said.
He also questioned the accuracy of the Home Affairs records and called for further verification, suggesting that court processes relating to his upbringing may provide clarity.
“I didn’t lie. I still maintain I didn’t lie. Maybe I was supposed to say ‘stepmother’, but that doesn’t sit well with us. The mother is a mother. She raised me, and I’m not apologetic about that,” he told the commission.
Commission chairperson, Judge Mbuyiseli Madlanga, offered Mkhwanazi the opportunity to gather all facts and supporting documents to substantiate his response, in the form of an affidavit, to the claims put to him by the evidence leader.
Madlanga apologised to Mkhwanazi for the way in which the 'sensitive' matter relating to 'intimate issues' about his family may have caught him by surprise.
Mkhwanazi has committed to furnishing the commission with the said affidavit within two days of the conclusion of his testimony.
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