Pretoria – Just over a week after “Witness K” implicated suspended Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Municipality Police Department (EMPD) Deputy Chief Julius Mkhwanazi in the theft of precious stones worth about R15 million, the Independent Police Investigative Directorate (IPID) has swooped and made an arrest.
Witness K testified remotely at the Madlanga Commission of Inquiry on June 23, 2026.
She outlined her role in an unlawful operation in the robbery of precious stones from an apartment in Killarney, Johannesburg.
Witness K explicitly implicated Mkhwanazi, whom she said was her boyfriend at the time, other EMPD officers and a civilian in the 2023 robbery.
She said Mkhwanazi’s role was to organise rogue law enforcement officers who would go to the apartment.
The plan was to steal the stones under the pretext of confiscating them, because the owner did not have the necessary permits.
“Each of us had our roles to play; I had to organise the informer, secure information as to the whereabouts of the stones and to ensure that the informer was ready to receive the stones and make payment after they got the stones.”
The robbery was carried out as planned.
The suspects allegedly raided and searched the Killarney apartment without a warrant before seizing the precious stones valued at about R15 million.
However, the owner of the precious stones reported the matter to the police, leading to the probe by the IPID.
Initially, there were six suspects, three from EMPD, one from Gauteng Traffic Police, one from the Johannesburg Metro Police Department, and a businessman who allegedly posed as a police officer.
Some of the exhibits were recovered from the car of one of the EMPD officers.
On Friday, 3 July 2026, IPID swooped on several residences, where the suspects were believed to live.
IPID arrested one person, who has not been named.
Commenting on the matter on Saturday, 4 July 2026, IPID spokesperson Lizzy Suping said: “Yesterday, IPID had three warrants of arrest”.
She added: “The arrested suspect from last night is detained at the Edenvale holding cells until his first court appearance on Monday, 6 July 2026, before the Johannesburg Magistrate’s Court”.
Suping said IPID, together with members of the police Tactical Response Team (TRT), were on the trail of two suspects that they could not locate last night.
The suspects face a charge of corruption because EMPD officers conducted an investigation outside their jurisdiction and failed to register the exhibits in the South African Police Service’s occurrence book.
