By Staff Reporter | Pretoria | 11 August 2026
PRETORIA – The Madlanga Commission of Inquiry heard fresh allegations on Tuesday from Investigating Directorate Against Corruption (IDAC) prosecutor Advocate Drushantha Ramsamy, who told commissioners that former IDAC head Andrea Johnson and her husband, senior Crime Intelligence officer Junaid Johnson, appeared to have pushed for the removal of another senior officer, Brigadier Ashine Krishnadutt.
Ramsamy testified that she had been asked to establish whether there was evidence to charge Krishnadutt, and said she later learned that Junaid Johnson reported to Andrea Johnson at the time. She told the inquiry: “At that time, I already knew that Junaid is Advocate Johnson’s husband.”
Evidence leader Advocate Lee Seegels-Ncube put it to Ramsamy that the underlying friction may have stemmed from Krishnadutt having been promoted to brigadier ahead of Junaid Johnson. Ramsamy said she only learned of that detail afterwards.
Ramsamy softens Cameron claim
Ramsamy also used Tuesday’s session to qualify evidence she gave last week suggesting that Democratic Alliance MP Ian Cameron may have had a hand in an alleged plot by former IDAC officials to have national police commissioner General Fannie Masemola removed from his post. She told the commission she had not been asserting Cameron’s involvement as fact, but was explaining how the sequence of events had appeared to her at the time.
Seegels-Ncube clarified for the commissioners that Ramsamy’s evidence was intended to show that the relevant discussions took place exclusively within IDAC, and that while members of a parliamentary policing committee may have been involved, Ramsamy had no direct evidence of that. Cameron has denied any involvement, though Ramsamy maintained that the timeline of events links him to developments in the alleged campaign against Masemola.
Weeks of damaging testimony
Ramsamy’s evidence has run intermittently since 30 July, when she first took the stand and directly contradicted testimony given by her former superior, Andrea Johnson, describing Johnson as having exercised tight personal control over the IDAC investigations into Crime Intelligence head Lieutenant-General Dumisani Khumalo and Technical Support Services head Brigadier Dineo Mokwele. She has also played the commission a recording of a phone call in which Johnson can reportedly be heard telling her to leave the country if summoned to testify.
In subsequent appearances Ramsamy broke down in tears, accusing Johnson of misleading the commission about the Mokwele case in a way that shifted blame onto junior staff, and testified about irregularities in Section 27 and Section 28 applications used to open the Khumalo and Mokwele investigations. She has also told the commission that a witness in a separate investigation into an allegedly irregular Crime Intelligence forklift purchase was flown from Pretoria to the Eastern Cape through arrangements made by Police Minister Senzo Mchunu.
Johnson resigned as IDAC head in late July following her own difficult six days of testimony, and the commission’s evidence leaders have since indicated she will be issued a Rule 3 notice — informing her of adverse evidence and giving her the opportunity to respond — ahead of a possible recall to the stand. The commission has also heard that three IDAC officials have been placed on precautionary suspension pending disciplinary processes, and that National Prosecuting Authority leadership has ordered a six-month reform process for the directorate, including lifestyle audits of all 212 IDAC staff.
The commission separately confirmed on Tuesday that the appearance of National Coloured Congress MP Fadiel Adams, whose whistleblower complaint triggered the original investigations, has been postponed to 19 August after he submitted his statement late.
Ramsamy’s testimony is expected to continue as the Madlanga Commission works through its inquiry into allegations of political interference in policing and prosecutorial decisions affecting Crime Intelligence.
— Compiled from reporting by EWN, SABC News and eNCA.
