By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
SA Police Services (SAPS) Senior Forensic Analyst Captain Laurence Makgotloe has admitted that the ballistics laboratory prioritises the volume of cases processed over the quality of forensic work, which could lead to errors.
Testifying before the Madlanga Commission of Inquiry, Makgotloe focused onmultiple versions of ballistic reports linked to the Armand Swart murder, as well as the Ferreira gang and Bramley cases.
Swart, an employee at Q Tech Engineering Company based in Vereeniging, was shot and killed while seated in his vehicle outside his workplace by two suspects who were driving a white Hyundai i20 on 17 April 2024. He sustained multiple gunshot wounds and was declared dead on the scene.
Investigating officer, only known as Witness B, previously raised suspicions during his testimony at the commission that Makgotloe may have made errors in his ballistics report to derail the investigation.
Witnesses A, B and C are living in safe houses and are involved in investigations into Gauteng criminal cartels.
Makgotloe was on standby duty the day Swart was murdered.
“On arrival at the crime scene, I noted that it was cordoned off and there were a number of police officers,” explained Makgotloe.
“We started processing the scene, which took a few hours. We agreed that the ballistic analysis of the Vereeniging crime scene was going to be conducted by me. It is common practice for standby ballistics analysts to allocate crime scenes attended evenly to distribute the workload fairly. In this regard, I would be the one to complete the crime scene report for the Vereeniging case.”
22 exhibits were identified at the scene: 6x AK-47 fired bullets, 10x cartridge cases fired from a 9mm pistol, 4x bullets fired from another 9mm pistol and two bullets core fired from an AK-47 assault rifle.
“From our observation and processing of the Vereeniging scene, we could tell that an AK-47 assault rifle had been used. However, there were no AK-47 cartridge cases at the scene. We found two bullet cores of AK-47 and 6 AK-47 fired bullets.
“I would expect to find the AK-47 cartridge cases because they should have been ejected at the scene, but they were not there.”
Police forensic analyst Solomon Modisane previously testified that he linked the firearms used in Swart’s murder to several other killings, including that of DJ Sumbody, DJ Vintos and Don Tindleni.
Makgotloe denied deliberately omitting this information.
“I amended the report, corrected the errors and resubmitted it. The suggestion that I deliberately compromised the report is not true. The errors that existed were not forensic errors, but typing-related issues. These should have been picked up during the review process, but they were not, “he said.
The Swart case was assigned to Makgotloe on 8 May 2024. I collected the file on 9 May. The Bramley case, which is the arrest of the suspects in the Swart murder case, was also assigned to him.
The Bramley case had 225 exhibits, including 1 AK-47 assault rifle, 96 cartridges for the AK-47 assault rifle, 1 CZ brown 9mm pistol, 1 parabelum 9mm pistol, 3 magazines for the parabelum 9mm pistol, 15 AK-47 assault rifle cartridges and 91 9mm parabelum cartridges.
He said he submitted his report to his superior, though he never received any query or feedback from her until Witness B and her team came looking for it.
“One of the officers in Witness B’s team began drafting a Section 212 statement on my behalf using his laptop. While the officer was drafting the statement, the team asked me how many versions of the ballistic report for the Ferreira gang and Bramley cases I had.
“I showed them the versions stored on my computer because I had nothing to hide. These were working documents related to the same report, “Makgotloe told the commission.
He explained that the report existed in different formats for legitimate reasons and that all versions originated from a single source document.
“The Microsoft Word version was the original version from which all other versions of the report were derived.
“The initial changes were made following a review conducted by Colonel Munakali, and the rectified pages were printed and inserted into the first report issued to Witness B in June 2024.
“Subsequent changes were made based on queries raised by Senior Prosecutor John Kutiya. All of this was done from the same Word version,” he said.
Makgotloe told the commission that a scanned PDF version was later sent to the prosecution.
“There was also a PDF version of the report, which I scanned and emailed to Senior Prosecutor Kutiya on 22 October 2024.
“This was not a new or altered report, but simply a scanned version of the same document. At no stage was there any intention to mislead or manipulate the contents of the report. The versions reflected different stages of the same work, “he testified.
According to Makgotloe, tensions escalated dramatically after Witness B and her team viewed the different versions of the report.
“Upon seeing the different versions of the report, Witness B and her team started accusing me of manipulating the ballistic report.
“They then indicated that they were going to confiscate my computer. This happened shortly after midnight, and I was extremely distressed by the manner in which I was treated. I was not given an opportunity to explain myself properly,” Makgotloe told the commission.
Makgotloe told the commission that forensic experts work under extreme time pressure, increasing the risk of typing mistakes.
“By nature, an expert is not a typist, but we are doing our own typing. We are often given 20 minutes to type a statement, regardless of how many pages the statement has. Under those conditions, the possibility of errors will always be there. That is the reality of the system we work under,” he testified.
Commission chairperson Justice Mbuyiseli Madlanga said the explanation did not lessen the seriousness of the problem, warning that systemic pressure cannot excuse weaknesses in a criminal justice system that relies heavily on forensic evidence.
Meanwhile businessman Suliman Carrim – who was implicated in testimony before the Commission – will be taking the Commission to Court tomorrow in an urgent bid to halt the probe from subpoenaing him to appear before it on Friday, pending part B (a review).
Carrim was implicated by Witness X and Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi at the commission. He is expected to testify on Friday.
In testimony on September 29th and 30th, Dumisani Khumalo said he would deliver chats between Brown Mogotsi, Julius Mkhawanazi and Carrim. He has also been accused of pocketing cash in exchange for sensitive police information.