JOHANNESBURG — The Madlanga Commission of Inquiry, which is probing corruption within the South African Police Service (SAPS), has temporarily suspended its proceedings amid urgent security concerns for a key witness known as Witness X.
Commission chairperson Justice Mbuyiseli Madlanga announced on Tuesday that the inquiry would not sit on Wednesday to allow time for legal disputes to be resolved on whether Thursday’s witness testimony would proceed in-camera (behind closed doors) or remain public.
According to the commission, technical difficulties experienced during Tuesday’s session compromised the safety of Witness X, prompting an emergency halt to live testimony.
“We ran into technical difficulties that had the potential of endangering the safety of Witness X,” the commission said in an official statement. “Transparency cannot be at the risk of endangering a witness’s safety.”
Due to these threats, the live testimony was abruptly suspended, and the evidence leader read Witness X’s full statement into the record instead. This approach sped up proceedings but raised questions about transparency and witness protection.
Witness X was expected to provide damning testimony implicating senior SAPS officials in extensive corruption allegations.
“The commission values and respects transparency,” Tuesday’s statement continued, “but not at the cost of human life. We must now adopt a different format for how this evidence is presented.”
The commission is expected to resume on Thursday at 9:30 a.m., when Justice Madlanga will deliver a ruling on whether Witness X’s further testimony will proceed behind closed doors.
