How investigators discovered Katiso Molefe's connection to police officer as hitman

MURDER-accused Katiso ‘KT’ Molefe, and police officer Warrant Officer Michael Pule Tau have been placed at the centre of the murder of Armand Swart, an employee of a Vereeniging engineering company, who was shot dead after alleged hitmen mistook him for his boss.

This emerged when Witness A testified at the Madlanga Commission of Inquiry on Monday. The Commission is investigating allegations of collusion and corruption between politicians, senior police, prosecutors, intelligence operatives, and elements of the judiciary, levelled by KwaZulu-Natal Provincial Police Commissioner Lieutenant-General Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi.

Witness A’s testimony was held partially in camera, where the public was able to hear his voice but not see his face. This, according to the commission, was done for the safety of the witness.

A detective with the SAPS’s organised crime unit in Gauteng, Witness A detailed what started as being asked to attend to a crime scene in April 2024, where Swart was shot dead, allegedly mistaken for his boss. The company Swart worked for had uncovered a 4 650% overpricing on small engineering parts at Transnet.

According to Witness A, cellphone evidence showed Tau and Molefe communicating about what appeared to be the information of a company where Swart was employed. 

Molefe was recently released on R400,000 bail for the murder of DJ Sumbody. He is charged alongside three alleged hitmen, Tau, Musa Kekana, and Tiego Floyd Mabusela.

Car-tracking information showed that Tau would visit Molefe’s home, driving his Mercedes-Benz Viano. The same car was spotted on CCTV footage ‘scouting’ the area where Swart was employed a day before the murder.

Witness A said that when he and his colleagues got to the scene, three people had already been arrested.

“We started interviewing individuals, and one of them was a police officer, who identified himself as Michael Pule Tau. Musa Kekana was the driver, the other individual we cannot name because he was not linked to the murder,” Witness A said.

At least four cellphones were recovered from the suspects, one of them a burner phone, which Witness A described as not having an internet connection (a phone that cannot be easily traced).

A rim of a Mercedes-Benz, 15 used cartridges, and a firearm were recovered by the police from the murder suspects when they were arrested following the murder. These would lead to other scenes, one in Bramley — the home of Kekana — and a third scene in Kliprivier, where Mabusela was arrested, according to Witness A.

The hearing continues.

Cape Times