Before Madlanga, There Was Moerane

When retired Judge Marumo Moerane handed over his commission's report in 2018, it was intended to explain why KwaZulu-Natal had become the epicentre of political assassinations. Seven years later, another judicial commission is once again examining allegations that politics, organised crime and law enforcement have become dangerously intertwined.

While the Moerane Commission of Inquiry and the Madlanga Commission investigate different events, they are connected by a striking question: Did South Africa fail to act on the warnings it had already received?

I remember the formation of the Moerane Commission well. In 2016, I was a junior journalist covering politics, and political killings had become an unsettling part of the news cycle in KwaZulu-Natal. Every other week brought reports of another councillor, candidate or municipal official being gunned down. In response to the escalating violence, then KwaZulu-Natal Premier Willies Mchunu established the Moerane Commission in October 2016 to investigate its underlying causes.

A diagnosis, not just an investigation

As the Commission heard evidence, the violence continued.

In July 2017, former ANC Youth League secretary-general and Umzimkhulu councillor Sindiso Magaqa was ambushed with fellow councillors near his hometown. He died weeks later from his injuries. His murder became one of the defining cases of the era, with evidence before the Commission linking his assassination to allegations of corruption he had reportedly exposed within the municipality.

The Commission's findings challenged the notion that these murders were isolated criminal acts.

Instead, it concluded that political violence had become intertwined with patronage, corruption and competition for access to state resources.

"The Commission has found that greed rather than ideology is the driving force behind many of the political killings.” The report argued that political office had increasingly become a gateway to economic opportunity rather than public service, linking violence to municipal tenders, procurement processes and power-broking networks.

Maybe more significantly, the Commission warned that weaknesses within the criminal justice system had allowed these networks to flourish.

It identified shortcomings within the South African Police Service (SAPS), Crime Intelligence, prosecutorial capacity and witness protection, recommending that law enforcement institutions be insulated from political influence and strengthened to investigate politically motivated crimes more effectively.

Among its key recommendations was the creation of a specialised Political Killings Task Team dedicated to investigating political assassinations in KwaZulu-Natal.

The warning signs resurface

Today, many of those same institutions are at the centre of the Madlanga Commission.

Established by President Cyril Ramaphosa in 2025, the Judicial Commission of Inquiry into Criminality, Political Interference and Corruption in the Criminal Justice System a.k.a the Madlanga Commission - was formed following allegations by KwaZulu-Natal Police Commissioner Lieutenant General Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi.

In announcing the inquiry, President Ramaphosa said Mkhwanazi had alleged that then Police Minister Senzo Mchunu had "interfered with sensitive police investigations and colluded with business people, including a murder accused, to disband the Political Killings Task Team based in KwaZulu-Natal."

The Commission's terms of reference extend beyond individual allegations. It has been tasked with investigating criminality, political interference and corruption within law enforcement and intelligence structures, while considering whether officials implicated by evidence should face suspension pending further investigations.

Unlike the Moerane Commission, which sought to explain why political killings were occurring, the Madlanga Commission is examining allegations that the very institutions responsible for combating organised crime and political violence may themselves have been compromised.

An uncomfortable overlap

Although separated by seven years, the overlap between the two commissions is difficult to ignore.

• The Moerane Commission warned that political interference weakened policing.
• The Madlanga Commission is investigating allegations of political interference within SAPS.
• The Moerane Commission identified weaknesses in Crime Intelligence.
• The Madlanga Commission is examining the role of intelligence structures and alleged collusion with organised criminal networks.
• The Moerane Commission recommended specialised investigative capacity through the Political Killings Task Team.
• The Madlanga Commission is investigating allegations surrounding the weakening or attempted dismantling of that very unit.

These parallels do not establish wrongdoing. The Madlanga Commission remains an active judicial inquiry, and we are yet to hear its final findings.

They do, however, raise an uncomfortable question: were the structural weaknesses identified in 2018 ever meaningfully addressed?

More than political assassinations

One of the Moerane Commission's most enduring observations was that political killings were not simply a policing problem. Rather, they reflected broader failures of governance.

The report argued that corruption blurred lines between political office and administrative authority. This weakened public institutions and created an environment where violence became an effective tool for securing economic and political power. In hindsight, those findings read less like history and more like a warning.

Not because the Madlanga Commission has reached the same conclusions - it has not. Simply because many of the issues under investigation echo the institutional weaknesses identified years earlier.

Its mandate includes allegations involving organised crime, corruption, procurement irregularities and interference within multiple components of the criminal justice system. Its work suggests that concerns once viewed primarily through the lens of political assassinations may instead reflect broader questions about the resilience and independence of South Africa's institutions.

A commission judging more than allegations

Judicial commissions often become historical markers.

The Moerane Commission documented how political violence had become embedded within systems of patronage and institutional weakness. The Madlanga Commission may now become a measure of whether those warnings were ever taken seriously.

Its eventual findings will determine the credibility of the allegations before it.

But they may also answer a larger question: whether South Africa acted on one of the clearest diagnoses its justice system had already produced, or whether it allowed those institutional weaknesses to deepen.

If the Moerane Commission diagnosed the disease, the Madlanga Commission may ultimately determine whether the prescribed treatment was ever administered.

Sources

• Moerane Commission of Inquiry into Allegations of Political Killings in KwaZulu-Natal (2018) – Final Report.
• President Cyril Ramaphosa, Terms of Reference for the Judicial Commission of Inquiry into Criminality, Political Interference and Corruption in the Criminal Justice System (Madlanga Commission).
• Corruption Watch, Madlanga Commission Terms of Reference Gazetted.
• Public records relating to the assassination of Sindiso Magaqa and evidence presented before the Moerane Commission.