Nkabinde reveals he cannot identify four attendees from Mchunu-Mogotsi meeting

Suspended Police Minister Senzo Mchunu’s Chief of Staff, Cedrick Nkabinde, says he has no list of the four people who accompanied Northwest businessman and activist Brown Mogotsi to a private briefing with the Minister on the Stilfontein illegal-mining crisis, and insists he never knew who they were.

Testifying before Parliament’s ad hoc committee on Wednesday, Nkabinde said Mchunu had personally instructed him in August 2024, shortly after he took office as chief of staff, to arrange a meeting with Mogotsi and unnamed “local leaders” ahead of a planned ministerial visit to Stilfontein.

He told MPs that “the minister provided me with the contact details of Mr Brown Mogotsi from Northwest” and asked him to secure a briefing on the Zama-Zama situation.

Nkabinde said he contacted Mogotsi immediately, but the Minister’s diary was full for August. After further coordination, “the date of the 30th of September 2024 was identified as a possible meeting date based on the minister’s availability.”

Mogotsi confirmed he would attend with four others, and the meeting was scheduled for the official residence, said Nkabinde. 

The briefing was cancelled that morning after an urgent matter arose for the Minister, he said.

A second date, October 28, was set, and the meeting went ahead, but Nkabinde said he did not attend and could not confirm what was discussed.

He told the committee he could only assume it dealt with the Stilfontein crisis, “as that is the purpose for which this meeting was arranged.”

MPs challenged him repeatedly on why he could not name the participants. Nkabinde insisted that Mogotsi had never given him their identities, saying Mogotsi referred to them only as “other four comrades.”

He said he had not facilitated any other meetings for Mogotsi since, adding, “With my observation, it was only for this Stilfontein arrangement.”

He rejected suggestions that he should have known who entered the official residence, saying security procedures at the premises required only notification of expected visitors. “There is no register there, you simply alert them that you are expecting a visitor by the name of Brown Mokhotse,” he said.

Nkabinde also denied that Mogotsi had ever met the Minister in his office, telling MPs, “No, not at all.”

When asked about Mogotsi’s claim that he once made a phone call from the Minister’s office to a third party, Nkabinde said, “That has never happened in my presence.”

He further confirmed that a follow-up meeting requested by the Minister for early 2025 never materialised, according to Mogotsi, as the other attendees were urgently summoned to Luthuli House.

“He indicated that the comrades that he’s coming with were urgently called,” Nkabinde said. 

Nkabinde also corrected his earlier statements regarding a call from Lieutenant-General Mkhawanzi about an occurrence-book entry involving Mogotsi.

He told MPs, “I can confirm that I received a call from Lieutenant General Mkhwanazi on October 1, 2024, and not September 30, 2024,” while he was accompanying the minister on his first visit to Lusikisiki regarding the killings. 

hope.ntanzi@iol.co.za

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