Armand Swart's assassination was in the spotlight on Wednesday.
The Madlanga Commission of Inquiry has heard key evidence shedding light on the alleged motive behind the murder of Vereeniging engineer Armand Swart.
Witness B, a police investigator whose identity has been withheld for safety reasons, testified in camera on Wednesday before the commission in Pretoria.
Their appearance follows that of Witness A, who detailed the timeline that led to the arrest of alleged cartel member and businessman Katiso “KT” Molefe.
Molefe, along with former police detective Michael Pule Tau and alleged hitmen Musa Kekana and Tiego Floyd Mabusela, faces multiple charges, including for Swart’s murder.
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Swart, an engineer at Q Tech in Vereeniging, was shot 23 times outside his workplace on 17 April 2024.
Investigators believe he was mistakenly targeted in a hit intended for a whistle-blower who had exposed tender irregularities at Transnet.
Tau, Kekana, and Mabusela were arrested on the day of the killing, while Molefe was taken into custody in December 2024.
Armand Swart’s murder was ‘well prepared’
During their evidence, Witness B revealed that they are staying in a safe house.
The police officer told the commission that in all their years working on serious and violent crime cases, they had never encountered the kind of intimidation they faced in the Swart case, which they described as “intense”.
“With this case, it has been a unique one. I think it has escalated to the extreme. It had so many interferences and threats,” they said.
They said the case drew a lot of interest “from all spheres” – even from within the South African Police Service (Saps) – which they found “quite strange”.
According to the investigator, Mabusela acted as a scout, while Tau and Kekana were the shooters.
READ MORE: Armand Swart murder: investigator details how they allegedly linked Katiso Molefe to case
Witnesses and CCTV footage led to the arrests of three men, while cellphone records along with seized firearms linked them to Swart’s murder.
“This kind of murder was not just a hit and run, it was well prepared,” the witness said.
The police officer testified that strange events unfolded during the trio’s first court appearance on 19 April.
They claimed that court security reported stopping an individual attempting to photograph the investigators, while another woman boasted that Molefe would make the case vanish.
“There is this one particular utterance that was uttered by a certain lady; she was saying it out loud. I don’t know if she was bragging. She was like, ‘KT will make this thing disappear’, the witness said.
“At that point, we didn’t really know who KT is, how he is connected, how he is going to make this disappear, and what powers he holds to make this disappear.”
Watch the Madlanga Commission below:
After the proceedings, Witness B said they and their colleagues were followed by vehicles that tried to force them off the road.
They added that Molefe became a person of interest when cellphone data revealed communication between him and the three suspects.
Shortly after the murder, Tau sent Molefe a text message saying: “Morning, abuti re sharp neh (Brother, we are okay).”
Transnet tender corruption
Witness B also testified that Swart’s killing was connected to a Transnet contract awarded to a company called SK Group.
They said investigations revealed that the tender had been irregularly granted because two other bidders were “non-existent”, meaning there was no competition during the process.
The SK Group was linked to Molefe’s nephew and Transnet Freight Rail employee Lucky Molefe, who remains at large.
“Lucky Molefe is the buyer and the one who was facilitating this process,” the witness said.
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According to Witness B, Q Tech, a long-time Transnet supplier, was approached by SK Group to purchase small metal springs.
SK Group then resold the same springs to Transnet at highly inflated prices — purchasing them for R3.90 each from Q Tech and charging R151 per unit.
When Q Tech reported the irregularity, Molefe was asked to hand over documents to investigators.
However, Tau and Molefe allegedly began scouting Q Tech’s offices on 12 April.
“We see something common about the date of the 12th, because that’s when Lucky was pressured to give the documents.
“Knowing that there was manipulation in this – and that it would cost him his job and everything he had worked for – he reached out to his uncle instead.”
Further surveillance took place between 13 and 16 April.
“Subsequently, Armand was killed on the 17th, but there are things that happened in between,” Witness B testified.
Witness B said that Lucky sent Tau the name and cellphone number of the suspected Q Tech whistle-blower.
“Tau started sharing this with his girlfriend, named Lerato, asking her to search and find who that person is.”
The witness also told the commission that Swart was not the intended target of the hit.
Katiso Molefe’s son implicated
The police found during investigations that a sum of the money paid to SK Group by Transnet was allegedly transferred to the account of Molefe’s son, Thapelo, who received “as little as R30 000” from the scheme.
“Thapelo Molefe was the one paying people, including the so-called director of SK. So now it tells you who the masterminds of SK Group and this tender are.
“It also gives you a clear picture of why Mr [Katiso] Molefe was interested and had to do something because he was protecting the interests of his own son and nephew.”
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Witness B further alleged that Lucky had been linked to multiple questionable tenders.
“[Lucky] Molefe was at liberty to look at the history in the system for the people who had been supplying Transnet with the springs.
“The suppliers who were considered expensive were mostly not above R6, in instances where other employees facilitated the process. But in every tender where he was involved, the amount was R100 or more.”
The witness confirmed that investigations into those additional tenders are ongoing.
Katiso Molefe’s alleged bribes and bail battles
Witness B further testified that threats against investigators escalated as the case progressed.
Informants warned them and their team to either accept bribes or face assassination, claiming the accused could escape from custody or “buy their way out”.
One informant even alleged that Witness B had been bribed.
“He said I was paid R1.2 million,” the witness told the commission, adding that the information came shortly after Katiso Molefe was granted bail.
Earlier, Witness A testified that Molefe allegedly planned to pay a R2.5 million bribe to secure his release on bail.
Molefe has been granted bail twice this year.
The Gauteng High Court in Pretoria granted his first bail in June, overturning an earlier denial by the Vereeniging Magistrate’s Court.
He was released on R100 000 bail.
He was later re-arrested in July for the murders of Oupa “DJ Sumbody” Sefoka and his two bodyguards.
Although denied bail by the Alexandra Magistrate’s Court in August, Molefe successfully appealed again and was released earlier this month on R400 000 bail by the Gauteng High Court in Johannesburg.
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