Musa Khawula may be called to testify at Madlanga Commission
Controversial social media blogger Musa Khawula may be invited to testify before the Madlanga Commission after his name surfaced during proceedings.
Evidence presented at the commission suggested that senior police officials and political figures were allegedly involved in efforts to prevent Khawula from publishing content about alleged organised crime figure Vusimuzi "Cat" Matlala.
On Tuesday evening, Khawula shared what appeared to be communication on the social media platform X from a senior investigator believed to be working for the commission.
The post included a screenshot of correspondence and a text message confirming that he received a call from the Commission.
The commission heard testimony from Witness F, a member of the Gauteng Organised Crime Unit, who alleged that Major General Richard Shiburi, head of organised crime, contacted Khawula through a third party and asked him to stop reporting on Matlala.
Further allegations emerged during proceedings, with claims that Deputy Police Minister Cassel Mathale pressured police to track down Khawula over alleged insults directed at ANC Secretary-General Fikile Mbalula and businessman Ze Nxumalo.
Khawula had posted allegations on X claiming that Mbalula’s wife, Nozulo, and Michelle Perrow were involved in a R150 million fraud scandal.
Following the testimony, Khawula published a screenshot on social media appearing to show communication between himself and the commission.
Commission spokesperson Jeremy Michaels declined to confirm the nature of the communication but did not deny that engagement had taken place.
“Firstly, I think it’s important to say that the commission does not ventilate its confidential communications in public.
"There are many engagements unfolding with a number of individuals, persons of interest, and potential witnesses, and we certainly do not want to get into a discussion in public about any of those individual matters that are between the commission and those individuals,” said Michaels.
He added: “In this particular case, the individual has gone public themselves and communicated what we communicated.
"Again, for our part, we are not going to get into that conversation in public. We want to respect the confidentiality of the commission’s engagements with individuals, and we certainly do not want to encourage that kind of discussion.
“We would also like to discourage individuals with whom the commission is having confidential engagements from going public and putting the commission’s engagements with them on social media. In this case, that is precisely what happened with this particular individual.
“We want to discourage that and encourage all individuals with whom the commission is engaging to respect confidentiality.”
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