MADLANGA COMMISSION: Marimuthu, money laundering and Mchunu — Hawks officer grilled over cop controversies, cash

A KwaZulu-Natal policeman has told the Madlanga Commission of Inquiry that he took colleagues to visit Timothy Marimuthu, a controversial politically connected figure once convicted of Mandrax dealing and implicated in various high-level scandals, ranging from Crime Intelligence to a SARS commissioner’s resignation.

A KwaZulu-Natal police officer has told the Madlanga Commission of Inquiry how he took colleagues to visit politically connected convict-businessman Timothy “Timmy” Marimuthu, whose name keeps surfacing in state controversies.

On Monday, 31 August 2026, Deenadayalan (Deena) Govender, who heads a Hawks tracing team in KwaZulu-Natal, said he knew Marimuthu was involved in industries including the taxi sector, and that the two had visited each other’s homes.

Monday was not the first time that Govender testified at the Madlanga Commission.

Other witnesses previously painted him as the head of a rogue police team involved in criminality, while Govender has portrayed himself as a pawn in a dirty game.

Govender alleges a fellow policeman, whom he identified as a Sergeant Thomas, the nephew of the State Security Agency’s Foreign Branch head Robert McBride, is actually targeting him.

During Monday’s proceedings, Govender initially came across as sure of himself.

But when the focus turned to the origin of some of his finances, and it was put to him that certain cash movements resembled money laundering, his confidence appeared to deflate.

An aspect that did not sit well with evidence leaders and commissioners was that Govender expected them to believe that between August 2022 and December 2023, he happened to receive more than R3-million in cash.

On Monday he confirmed that he knew that Marimuthu had previously been convicted of dealing in Mandrax.

According to a previous commission of inquiry into Correctional Services – the Jali Commission – Marimuthu was sentenced to an effective three years in jail in 1992 “for the crime of dealing in 3,390 Mandrax tablets”.

The Jali Commission found: “When the commission investigated the matter it soon became clear that all was not what it seemed and that sinister and extraordinary manoeuvrings had taken place behind the scenes by some of those implicated to ensure that Mr Marimuthu escaped incarceration.”

Former police minister Bheki Cele, meanwhile, previously told Parliament that Marimuthu appeared “quite close with intelligence people” and once organised a meeting between Cele and former Crime Intelligence head Richard Mdluli.

WATCH | Former Police Minister Bheki Cele confirms that he knows Timmy Marimuthu, adding that he used to be a police officer who was arrested for drug-related issues. He adds that he also organised a meeting between him and Richard Mdluli. pic.twitter.com/wF3wjGXxlS