Pretoria — 4 August 2026

Advocate Peter Serunye, a deputy director of public prosecutions at the Investigating Directorate Against Corruption (IDAC), told the Madlanga Commission of Inquiry on Tuesday that he now believes he was misled by his former boss, ex-IDAC head Advocate Andrea Johnson, when he helped draft fraud and corruption charges against senior South African Police Service Crime Intelligence officers.

Serunye is giving evidence about the case that led to the June 2025 arrest of Lieutenant-General Dumisani Khumalo and six other Crime Intelligence officers, in connection with the appointment of Brigadier Dineo Mokwele. He told the commission that while IDAC investigated the Crime Intelligence officials, the unit was also identifying potential cases arising out of the earlier Zondo, Mpati and Nugent commissions, and that its inquiries additionally touched on Major-General Philani Lushaba.

A charge sheet he says was rushed

According to his testimony, Serunye repeatedly raised concerns during preparation of the charges, telling the commission the charge sheet against the Crime Intelligence generals was rushed, not court-ready, and that arrests were made prematurely. He said the document was defective, and that he flagged this to Johnson on several occasions.

Serunye said he made written representations to Johnson and to IDAC colleagues by email but received no response. He also told the commission that no one at IDAC appeared to know about a Section 27 referral — the document he says underpinned the charges — and that his repeated requests to see it were ignored. He said Johnson eventually called him in and told him to stop asking about the Section 27 referral and to focus on his work. Advocate Peter Padayachee subsequently disputed related claims at the commission that IDAC’s operations manual was not being applied in practice, an impression he said Johnson had created.

He also questioned whether the case fell within IDAC’s mandate at all, telling the commission he believed a charge under the Prevention and Combating of Corrupt Activities Act (Precca) had been added to give the charge sheet a veneer of legitimacy.

Echoes of Mkhwanazi’s 2025 claims

Serunye told the commission that in July 2025 he watched a televised address by KwaZulu-Natal police commissioner Lieutenant-General Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi, who alleged that criminal networks had infiltrated police, prosecutorial and political structures — and that at the time he did not believe what Mkhwanazi was saying. In hindsight, he said, he now sees the Khumalo case differently: something, he told the commission, was going on that he could not see at the time but can see now.

His account adds to testimony from Advocate Drushatha Ramsamy, who told the commission that Johnson was central to decisions targeting Khumalo and national police commissioner General Fannie Masemola. Both witnesses have, in effect, contradicted their former boss’s version of events.

Charges withdrawn, Johnson resigns

Serunye’s evidence follows a string of setbacks for IDAC’s case. Under cross-examination in late July, Johnson conceded that the directorate could be seen to have acted outside its mandate in pursuing Khumalo, and accepted that a Public Service Commission report from August 2023 had already cleared his appointment of irregularity more than a year before IDAC pursued the matter. She also apologised for having described Mokwele, a qualified officer, as an unqualified civilian, and conceded that the claim anchoring the corruption case against Khumalo was incorrect.

National Prosecuting Authority head Advocate Andy Mothibi subsequently withdrew the fraud and corruption charges against Khumalo and his co-accused in the Mokwele matter. On 27 July, President Cyril Ramaphosa agreed to let Johnson leave her post immediately after she asked that her three-month notice period be waived — the resignation Serunye referred to in his testimony.

Johnson is expected to be recalled to the commission to answer further allegations that emerged after her initial testimony concluded, including questions about a recorded phone call and a suspect list handed over in December 2024. The commission’s evidence leaders have indicated a Rule 3 notice will be issued to her, a procedural step that allows a person named in evidence to respond — not a finding against her.

The Madlanga Commission — formally the Judicial Commission of Inquiry into Criminality, Political Interference and Corruption in the Criminal Justice System — was established in the wake of Mkhwanazi’s 2025 allegations and continues to hear testimony from current and former justice-sector officials in Pretoria.

Sourcing: This report draws on Adv Serunye’s testimony as summarised in the supplied brief, cross-checked against SABC News and Jacaranda FM/Bulletin coverage of his 4 August 2026 evidence, and on contemporaneous reporting (Daily Maverick, TimesLive, The Citizen, Sowetan) on Andrea Johnson’s late-July testimony, resignation, and the withdrawal of charges against Lt-Gen Khumalo. All allegations referenced remain untested before the commission unless otherwise noted; those named are entitled to respond.