The Madlanga Commission has heard further disturbing testimony detailing alleged brazen criminality within the Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Police Department (EMPD).
Appearing before the commission on Friday, Thulani Magagula, Director of the Independent Police Investigative Directorate (IPID), accused the metro police department of routinely allowing officers facing serious criminal charges to remain on duty.
Magagula told the commission that, based on IPID’s experience with EMPD, the department would often receive investigation reports, register them internally, and then take no meaningful disciplinary action. Instead, IPID would proceed with criminal investigations independently, with departmental consequences only following once a court had secured a conviction.
“According to my experience with EMPD,” Magagula said, “when we give them copies, they open their DR, they put them there, and we run with our investigation criminally until the member is found guilty. Those are the successes they will have departmentally, not because of their investigation.”
He cited specific cases, including that of a former EMPD officer who was ultimately convicted as a serial rapist and sentenced to multiple life terms. According to Magagula, the officer remained on duty for several years while the criminal trial was underway. He also referred to another officer accused of raping a minor who allegedly continued working until he was convicted and sentenced.
Magagula further alleged that instead of acting on IPID’s reports, some members of EMPD management would conceal them. In certain instances, he claimed, implicated officers were allowed to continue working, only for unresolved allegations to later be used as leverage against them.
“An officer, if he does something, they will ignore our report and let him work, and if he does something, they will say, ‘we will expose you.’ So it is not for a good purpose,” he told the commission.
The testimony raises serious concerns about internal accountability mechanisms within EMPD and the broader effectiveness of disciplinary oversight in law enforcement institutions.