Mkhwanazi claims Presidency interfered in policing to benefit Richards Bay Minerals

KwaZulu-Natal Police Commissioner Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi has claimed that the Presidency interfered in policing matters to benefit a private company and minerals giant - Richards Bay Minerals (RBM).

Mkhwanazi, who is testifying at the Madlanga Commission of Inquiry, said RBM experienced several threats against executives, including the murder of their general manager, Nico Swart, in 2021, among others.

The commission was established by President Cyril Ramaphosa following Mkhwanazi’s explosive 6 July 2025 briefing, where he claimed the criminal justice system in Gauteng was being controlled by senior cops and politicians in cahoots with drug cartels and criminals.

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Mkhwanazi deployed a team of detectives to assist in cracking the murder cases, but after a year, recalled the detectives back to KZN’ provincial head office in Durban as a cost-saving measure.

He alleged that after recalling the detectives, he received a call from National Police Commissioner Fannie Masemola.

“A call that I received from my boss, the national commissioner, who said to me, ‘But I hear that you deployed people to Richards Bay, and you withdrew them’. I said, ‘Yes, I deployed them there for a mission; they didn’t achieve their mission a year later. I brought them back and they are still carrying those investigations, but from my office’. Then he [Masemola] said, ‘No, I received a complaint from the Presidency. You must send those people back there’.”

At the same time, Mkhwanazi claimed that certain journalists are being used to push the agenda of senior police officers, who are protecting drug syndicates in the country.

“This system of protecting the drug squad, media plays a part - let me rephrase this, journalists within media houses - they are part of this, in pushing certain narratives.

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