By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
The Investigating Directorate Against Corruption (IDAC) head Andrea Johnson and investigator Brian Padayachee are expected to appear at Madlanga Commission of Inquiry on Monday, 13 July 2026.
As the head of the directorate, Johnson is expected to respond to a series of claims made over recent days that have placed the unit under intense scrutiny.
The commission has heard claims that Johnson interfered in the handling of an assault investigation involving suspended Crime Intelligence Major-General Feroz Khan.
The complaint was laid by Brigadier Lenora Phetlhe, who alleges that Khan assaulted and intimidated her during an altercation at Crime Intelligence headquarters on 26 June 2018. Her A1 statement was commissioned at Silverton Police Station the same day, and a J88 medical report before the commission allegedly recorded injuries she sustained in the confrontation.
The commission heard evidence that Khan had access to Phetlhe’s complaint before submitting his own warning statement, raising questions about whether he tailored his version of events.
A Crime Intelligence officer, testifying partially in camera as Witness O, told the commission that on 4 July 2018, while Khan was in a meeting, he handed her his cellphone and asked her to give her private email address to a woman he identified as “Andrea”. The caller told her she would send an email, that its contents were to be printed for Khan and that Witness O must then delete the message.
Evidence before the commission showed that the email had been forwarded from the Johnson Gmail address after the material was sent to it by then-journalist Barry Bateman the previous day, 3 July 2018.
Witness O also cast doubt on the timing of Khan’s warning statement, saying it could not have been commissioned at 12.30pm as recorded, because the email only arrived after 12.45pm and the document’s properties showed it was modified at 1.13pm.
Asked why she defied the instruction to delete the email, she said she believed it could one day become important evidence, but was too fearful to come forward at the time. She kept the email, its attachments and the envelope for four years before making a protected disclosure in May 2022.
Her evidence was followed by retired Hawks Colonel Kobus Roelofse and Captain Mark McLean, who outlined the assault investigation and alleged interference they said prevented the case from being prosecuted.
The evidence places Johnson, now head of Idac, under fresh scrutiny at a time when she is already at the centre of controversy.
Last month, her attempt to arrest Crime Intelligence head Lieutenant-General Dumisani Khumalo and Major-General Nosipho Madondo prompted an extraordinary public intervention by KwaZulu-Natal Police Commissioner Lieutenant-General Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi, who warned that the SAPS was “facing a war” and that “there are many players” in this game.
This prompted the ministry of justice to establish the inaugural Ombud, with a mandate to investigate complaints of abuse of power, improper conduct and maladministration within the anti-corruption unit.
The IDAC Ombud is mandated to investigate allegations of abuse of power, probe allegations of improper conduct, maladministration and related complaints at the directorate.
The IDAC Ombud Office was established in terms of Section 22A of the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) Act, 1998, as amended by the National Prosecuting Authority Act, 2024. The legislation empowers the Minister, after consultation with the Chief Justice, to appoint the IDAC Ombud.
The department said Judge Raulinga, who previously served on the Gauteng High Court Bench, would provide independent oversight of the Investigating Directorate Against Corruption.