Referred to as: Mr Ngoato · MR NGOATO
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The agreement of sale signed by Sergeant Nkosi's brother does not have provisions dealing with ownership and risk of the truck until the full purchase price is paid.
“It does not have provisions dealing with ownership and risk of the truck until the final purchase price is paid, the full purchase price is paid.”
Sergeant Nkosi was not present when the sale agreement was made between his brother and Mr Ngoato but agrees that payment appears to be made in due course.
“I was not present when the sale of agreement was made between my brother and Mr Ngoato, but it appears that there will be a payment made in due course.”
Sergeant Nkosi partly agrees with the proposition but will not go into details about the agreement of sale as he was not present during the sale.
“I partly agree, but I will not go into details on the agreement of sale. I was not present when the sale of agreement was made between my brother and Mr Ngoato, but it appears that there will be a payment made in due course.”
There is an anomaly regarding two different registration numbers in affidavits and agreements related to the sale of a truck.
“you have those two different registration numbers ... in paragraph 4 of Bheki's affidavit ... is KN33 RNGP ... in the agreement itself ... the registration number is a different registration number”
Bheki's affidavit states he owns a company and sold the truck on behalf of that company called Ngaphesheya, but the sale agreement does not mention Ngaphesheya and states Bheki sold the truck himself.
“this is Bheki's affidavit, he says he owns a company and on behalf of that company, Ngaphesheya, he sold that truck ... in the agreement at page 15, there is absolutely no mention of Ngaphesheya ... it is Bheki who is selling the truck, his truck”
The documents do not reflect a legitimate sale from Ngaphesheya to Mr Ngoato, making them suspect and possibly crafted to explain cash possession.
“these documents do not reflect a sale by your brother's company to Mr Ngoato and therefore ... make their validity or their purpose to be suspect”
Mr Ngoato paid Sergeant Nkosi's brother in cash for the truck, an unusual transaction involving a large amount of cash (R380,000).
“why he had been paid in cash ... Mr Ngoato had paid him in cash ... It is such a huge sum of money in cash, R380000”
Sergeant Nkosi did not inquire about the cash payment or request proof, trusting both business people's integrity.
“I did not see any problem on the issue of that money at that time ... I did not ask him for a receipt”
Mr Ngoato conducts various businesses including auctions involving animals, pubs, and boat clubs, which explained his capability to produce the cash.
“I know that he ran auctions in terms of the animals. He ran pubs. He ran boat clubs”
Sergeant Nkosi's brother only showed a sale agreement signed by himself but not signed by Mr Ngoato, and no receipt was obtained for the cash payment.
“my brother only showed me ... some kind of sale agreement ... signed solely by him ... Mr Ngoato did not sign ... No receipt was requested for the money paid”
Sergeant Nkosi did not consider the cash payment suspicious because he knew the parties involved and trusted their business reputations.
“Knowing my brother and knowing Mr Ngoato, that they are both business people, I did not see any problem”
None of the annexures provided state that cash changed hands between Mr. Ngoato and Sergeant Nkosi's brother; there is no evidence of EFT or other payment form.
“And then do you accept that nowhere in any of the annexures you provided to us does anybody say that cash exchanged between Mr Ngoato and your brother ? In other words , there was no EFT transaction or there was no payment in another form . Nobody in any of these documents is saying that the purchase price was paid in hard cash . Do you accept that ?”
Advocate Khumalo SC points out that Mr. Ngoato does not say he gave Sergeant Nkosi cash, only his elder brother was given cash by Mr. Ngoato.
“He says he gave : “ I handed the purchase money averred to my elder brother . ””
Advocate Khumalo SC argues that Mr. Ngoato's statement does not explicitly say he gave cash to Sergeant Nkosi, suggesting the money could have been obtained from someone else.
“Your brother does not say Mr Ngoato gave him cash . Do you accept that ?”
Sergeant Nkosi testifies that even if Mr. Ngoato does not explicitly state he gave cash, he mentioned cash, which does not disprove cash was given.
“Even if he does not state that he gave him cash , but here he mentioned cash . So it does not necessarily mean that Mr Ngoato did not give him cash .”
Mr Ngoato highlighted that Sergeant Nkosi requested to reflect on the payment response due to its serious incriminating implications.
“He needs to reflect on that first because there is a serious incrimination in that answer.”
Sergeant Nkosi does not know if the truck was ever delivered to Mr. Ngoato but thinks it was.
“I would not know , but I thinks so .”
Sergeant Nkosi states that after Mr. Ngoato paid money, he did not take the truck immediately.
“What I know , after Mr Ngoato paid money , he did not take the cash .”
Sergeant Nkosi admits he does not know when Mr. Ngoato took the truck after payment and is not sure if it was still with his brother on 16 December 2025 when he deposed to the affidavit.
“I am not sure .”
Sergeant Nkosi states the truck was still with Mr. Ngoato on 16 December 2025, but then admits he is not sure.
“It was with Mr Ngoato , I believe so , ... I am not sure .”
Mr Ngoato and his colleagues made their own campaign files from Commission files because they needed to consult files thoroughly and found errors in the Commission files.
“We made our own files because obviously when we consult we need to go through files. There was no way ... Secondly, the same pages have been identified in the last three days. Colleagues and I have been sharing this information ...”
Mr Ngoato disputes the claim that Tshwane documents were provided three weeks ago stating that the documents were only delivered to his office the preceding Friday and that new documents have been continuously arriving, causing difficulties in preparation.
“The documents on Tshwane were only delivered on my office this Friday. ... New documents were now surprisingly brought up ... just as we are continuing with it, new documents tried to slip into my files this morning ... This cannot be accepted.”
Adv Chaskalson confirms the Tshwane documents were provided electronically three weeks ago but the paginated bundle was only delivered physically recently; thus, the documents were available to Mr Ngoato earlier though he claims otherwise due to not reviewing the electronic versions.
“The Tshwane documents ... were provided electronically ... about three weeks ago ... What Mr Ngoato got was the paginated bundle on Friday ... The documents forming part of the paginated bundle had been sent to him electronically weeks before Friday ... So his complaint that he has not seen these documents before is factually incorrect.”
Adv Chaskalson states that giving all documents from Sergeant Nkosi's phone to Mr Ngoato would be impractical, so a filtering process is exercised based on relevance and fairness, and the chats are only relevant to disproving Sergeant Nkosi's answer about meeting dates.
“If I were to give ... everything that we have downloaded from Sergeant Nkosi's phone ... that will be thousands and thousands of documents ... So we exercise some sort of filtering process ... This chat that we are talking about is relevant only to disprove the answer that the witness has just given now ...”
Mr Ngoato denied ever being electronically shared the documents and said he printed everything he received and took an effort to ensure it.
“The documents were never shared with us. On the 3rd of March is when I responded to the affidavit that the Commissioner requested that I should submit.”
Mr Ngoato claimed the documents were never shared electronically with them at all.
“They were never shared with us at all. I printed everything that I received from them and over the weekend, I took an effort to make sure …”
Mr Ngoato expressed frustration over the continual emergence of new documents in the questioning causing issues of credibility and the burdensome task of handling thousands of pages without sufficient time.
“And the reason I raised this issue is the continuing trend that every single time a line of questioning come up, I allow the witness to finish answering it, but then becomes an issue of credibility at the end of the line of question to say, no, you are actually lying or what you are saying is false. Because if we pull out the following documents, we will prove you wrong… new documents are revealed and revealed … I indicated to you, it was not just a bank statement. It was also written statements and again it was a manner in which it was trying to sneak into my file giving somebody who is not even a member of the law firm to go and edit my files…”
Mr Ngoato rejected the notion that documents could be added to his file without his knowledge and stressed the need for prior consent for any additions.
“The decency and the collegiality will require you come to me as an attorney of record. These are the additional records that we want to have. You do not go to my files without my knowledge and want to put it in there.”
Mr Ngoato requires a heads-up when a document has not been shared with him so he can request access to it to avoid ambush during testimony.
“Simply what I am required is that if you are to refer to a particular document and you are aware that you have not shared that document, just give me a heads-up...and share the document with us.”
It is unfair and prejudicial for a witness to be ambushed with documents they had not previously seen, which damages their credibility in answering questions.
“I do not appreciate and it cannot be fair that my client is being ambushed on documents that he had never had sight of and he is being told you are not telling the truth, because this goes into his credibility in terms of answering.”
On 22 January, Mr Chaskalson provided Mr Ngoato with a memory stick containing every chat including hundreds of other chats, and the documents were only bundled for cross-examination two weeks ago.
“On the 22nd of January, we gave Mr Ngoato a memory stick with every chat we have...We did not believe they were going to be relevant until the witness presented certain answers...Everything in the bundle was made available to Mr Ngoato two weeks ago.”
Mr Ngoato was not at the inquiry at 9:30 because someone was amending his client's files in his absence without informing him, which he took serious exception to.
“I found somebody consulting with my client in my absence, amending my files in my absence and I took serious exception to that.”
Documents were handed to Mr Ngoato's client and placed in the client's file without informing Mr Ngoato, which impacted his ability to guide the client.
“They went and handed documents to my client in my absence and to put into the client's file . . . I will not be able to guide the client if documents have been slotted in his file without me knowing about it.”
Mr Ngoato denies he was absent at 9:30 due to awaiting a ruling on a different matter, stating he arrived on time and only left to attend to the issue of files being amended without his knowledge.
“I arrived on time, Commissioner. I sat my bags, and nobody indicated anything to me and I went to go and pick up my clients so we can proceed in here”
Mr Chaskalson SC was not aware of the issue until Mr Ngoato returned after 9:30 and explained the cause of the delay relating to file amendments without Mr Ngoato's consent.
“I was not aware of this whole episode until after Mr Ngoato returned after 9:30 . . . I had, what I had been told was from the security, the Commission security officer, was that he had anticipated that the ruling was going to be handed down first . . . It turns out that there is this issue which was brought to my attention by Mr Ngoato when he came in after 9:30.”
Mr Ngoato stated there are no chats between Sergeant Nkosi and General Mkhwanazi in the disclosed bundle and that the disclosed chats are on a memory stick not included in the bundle.
“In the entire bundle, there are no chats between Sergeant Nkosi and General Mkhwanazi. They have not disclosed that to us.”
Mr Ngoato notes objection to chats being put on memory stick and questions why relevant documents are not in the main bundle but only on memory stick.
“Why have it in a memory stick and not have it in the bundle if you wanted us to be able to do it? Why have others in the bundle and not in the memory stick?”
Adv Chaskalson SC states memory stick contains all chats and Mr Ngoato will be able to review relevant extracts after lunch if necessary.
“If Mr Ngoato wants to see the chat with General Mkhwanazi, I can pull out the relevant extract, give it to him at lunchtime, and we can come back to this if it is necessary after lunch.”