GROUNDUP: Ekurhuleni police force employed convicted killers, Parliament told

Parliament’s Standing Committee on Public Accounts this week received a damning report on the state of five metros, following oversight visits and hearings in Mangaung, Tshwane, Ekurhuleni, Johannesburg and eThekwini.

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 .

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.

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.