Suspended 'blue light blesser' Ekurhuleni metro cop mysteriously returns to work

A senior Ekurhuleni metro police official suspended for allegedly dishing out blue lights to his friends and entering into questionable deals on behalf of the city returned to work after his investigation was abandoned for no apparent reason. 

This was despite an internal investigation finding that he must be charged with abuse of power and gross dishonesty. 

Brig Julius Mkhwanazi, a director of specialised services at the Ekurhuleni Metro Police Department (EMPD), has mysteriously returned to work and the disciplinary hearings, which were meant to begin in July, did not sit. 

Mkhwanazi was suspended in February and charged on six charges of matters related to Pretoria security firm CAT-VIP Protection and his disciplinary hearings were meant to start within three months after his suspension as prescribed by the disciplinary procedure collective agreement .

Mkhwanazi confirmed he was back at work but declined to comment on any matters relating to his suspension and referred Sowetan to the municipality. 

Municipal spokesperson Phakamile Mbengashe said the disciplinary hearings did not take place due “the need for further investigation and outstanding information”. 

Lt-Col Hennie Erasmus, commander of the internal investigation unit at EMPD, was assigned to carry out the internal investigation after it was found that Mkhwanazi had a case to answer.

After an internal investigation, a private law firm, Majang Inc, was appointed to draft charges and conduct the disciplinary hearing against Mkhwanazi.

Mkhwanazi faces six charges of dishonesty which are all linked to his relationship with CAT-VIP Protection. 

According to the charge sheet, in 2021 Mkhwanazi wrote a memorandum using the council’s letterheads giving instructions for the private security company owned by Vusimusi Matlala to use blue dash-light vehicles from the council. 

Matlala is a tender tycoon implicated in the Tembisa Hospital corruption scandal previously flagged by Gauteng health department official Babita Deokaran, a whistleblower who has since been murdered. 

The investigation into Mkhwanazi found that his conduct amounted to abuse of his position of authority and gross dishonesty, as well as abuse of resources of the city and insubordination. 

The investigations into the use of blue dash-lights came after his partner Cordelia Kabeng posted a video on Instagram bragging about using blue dash-lights and zigzagging traffic to fetch her children from school.

The same vehicles, which were registered in the municipality’s name, were seen on videos she posted taking her to the airport.  

Police watchdog the Independent Police Investigative Directorate (Ipid) has confirmed that it was investigating Mkhwanazi on allegations of corruption in connection with the use of blue dash-lights by a third party, among others. 

Ipid spokesperson Robbie Raburabu said: “The deputy chief of police laid a complaint of corruption at his department for the use of blue lights. With us looking at this matter now, it might touch other people that have not been mentioned.”

According to the report, Mkhwanazi was also charged with dishonesty for accepting four luxury cars from CAT-VIP Protection as a donation to the EPMD without declaring them to council.

He further arranged for the vehicles to be registered under the council in the eNaTIS system without his superiors’ knowledge. 

A source close to the investigation said only the council can approve the acceptance of a donation.

“Any donation must be declared to the employer and that must be submitted in council for approval and in cases that include cars, those cars should be registered in the system as the city’s property to allow them to get petrol from our depot and the city also pays for their disc renewals,” said the source.

Mkhwanazi was also found to have abused his power when in 2020 he entered into a Medicare 24 contract, a CAT-VIP Protection subsidiary, without following proper procedures.  

The report also said Mkhwanazi tried to justify the importance of working with CAT-VIP and went as far as cooking some of the documents relating to the city’s past operation plans that allegedly involved the company. 

Based on the different font, spacing and general content, the report said it appeared the documents submitted by Mkhwanazi were not the original approved operational plan but had been altered to include private companies such as CAT-VIP security as role players.

“I read the hard copy of the operational plan and discovered that the operational plan has been altered... to my knowledge, CAT -VIP has never been a supplier to the city and has never been contracted to do work with the city,” read the report.