M R S H O N G W E M P

Mr S Hongwemp states that Yusuf informed him that General Khan wished to speak to him telephonically, but Hongwemp refused to take the call.

“Yusuf stated that someone wished to speak to me without explaining further and he insisted on calling this person to speak to me telephonically. I asked who is this person was. They then disclosed the name of this individual as General Khan. I refused and I informed them that I did not wish to take the call.”

During the interaction, Yusuf called General Khan on the phone despite Hongwemp's refusal to take the call, which was answered as a video call by General Khan.

“During this interaction, Yusuf moved his chair closer to mine and proceeded to call this person. As the phone was already ringing in, the call was answered and it was General Khan. ... And it was then when I saw this face that I know this face on pictures. ... It was a video call.”

Hongwemp explicitly states that he did not agree to have the conversation with General Khan and told Yusuf not to call him.

“No, I did tell him that I do not want. ... While he was calling, I am telling him, no, no, do not call. We can either make other ways and talk if there is a way, but I do not want a phone call. And I tell him that I do not like phone calls.”

Yusuf reassured Hongwemp that they would help with the phones and track any phone calls, promising assistance if he were scared of phone calls.

“He then explains to me, do not worry, brother, we will help you with the phones. If you are scared of phone calls and anything, do not worry. We will help with your phone. Your phone will be tracking someone, you are making a phone call. All this nonsense.”

General Khan spoke to Hongwemp during the video call, repeatedly questioning why Hongwemp was doing what he was doing to him, seeming emotionally distressed.

“He has the phone in his hand, and then Khan speaks. At the time when Khan speaks, he starts saying, brother, what are you doing? Why are you doing this to me? The conversation was in that line. Why are you doing this to me? And what did I do to you? ... He then touches his neck, you are suffocating me. And his eyes are now turning red. If I may say, he was crying.”

Hongwemp was experiencing fear for his life due to the situation with General Khan, having received warnings from people on the street advising him to be careful.

“I got so many of those in a way that I started to take note that okay now I have put my life in danger with this thing. But the day this happened, it was when I asked u Baba (Mr) Paul O’Sullivan.”

Mr Hongwemp questioned why Paul O'Sullivan and Sarah-Jane Trent focused investigations on General Phahlane rather than General Khan, despite many allegations against Khan.

“I was probing that when it comes to General Phahlane, they already had proof of the sound system. And he answered, u Paul O’Sullivan, he loves South Africa, that is why he is investigating. So that is why I asked him, as a lover of South Africa, how do you then generate who you want to target, where you see the allegations of General Khan are so many, but you focus on Phahlane? That is the issue.”

Mrs. Shongwe was called to Durban by certain people who took her to a security company office near Cubana and questioned her about what was wrong and why she was being targeted.

“Guess what happened? I got a call to come to Durban, somebody wants to see me... They took me to a security company office, actually, they asked me, they invited me to that office in Morningside, not far from Cubana. When I entered, they spoke to me and said to me, Shongwe, what is wrong, what did we do to you?”

During that meeting in Durban, Mrs. Shongwe was shown a security house with cameras and was told not to engage with others as someone wanted to speak to her via a video call from a person identified as General Khan.

“That house has cameras outside and inside, General, as we are speaking, obviously they make promises we will look after you, do not do this, why speak to this guy, there is somebody who wants to speak to you... On the video call is a person I do not know... but I am told this is General Khan now.”

General Khan allegedly avoids appearing before the Ad Hoc Committee to clarify his name despite accusations against him, instead inviting Mrs. Shongwe to an office to discuss.

“If General Khan is as true as he says, why is he not applying to come here and clarify his name? But instead, he opts to call me and invite me into an office.”

Mrs. Shongwe met Imran and Aseef Kajee in Durban, who claimed to have a cigarette factory in Pietermaritzburg and referenced help given to then former SG Floyd Shivambo at the factory.

“When you got there, you met these people who have a factory of cigarettes in Pietermaritzburg. Who are you talking about? I amran and Aseef Kajee... They have a cigarette factory? It is what they told me... They say your former SG, referring to Floyd Shivambo, when he came to the factory, we always helped him, we gave him something, do not worry.”

Mrs. Shongwe expressed that the assistance expected from the Ad Hoc Committee in investigating matters like the alleged cigarette factory and drugs issue is very limited and poor.

“The level of assistance we are supposed to get or I think we should be getting in the Ad Hoc Committee, is zero. Because this matter, it is only here that I am speaking about this matter.”

Mrs. Shongwe was hijacked and kidnapped by two people while visiting one of her pastors, and the police classified the case as kidnapping and hijacking but she did not report it at the time to pursue her work and questioning of Cat Matlala.

“When his daughter was opening the gate, I got hijacked and my car, I was taken into the car at the back, and we drove off with those two people, with the daughter as well. Fast forward, the case is opened. The case is opened as kidnapping and hijacking. Now, I asked the police, why do you specify it like that? I did not report it. I went to work, I went to the police station. After I was done...”

Mrs. Shongwe wished to question Cat Matlala about suspicions regarding drugs being stored at Pretoria West College rather than being transported to a lab as reported, linking it to a syndicate she calls the Indian Cabal, allegedly connected with General Khan and Cat Matlala.

“I wanted to ask him is this the reason he got residence for his business in Pretoria West, so that these drugs, if they were brought to Pretoria West, nobody will think the drugs of Cat Matlala are in the police college. If the drugs were in college, that means the syndicate, which I call the Indian Cabal, which I am still checking the IDAC people, Khan would have been able to work with Cat Matlala to get the drugs stored in the police...”