PRETORIA – The Madlanga Commission says suspended EMPD deputy chief Julius Mkhwanazi may have misrepresented facts when he said his mother died to avoid his appearance last month.
Mkhwanazi was due to return before the Commission on 23 March, but he sought a postponement after informing evidence leader Mahlape Sello that his mother had died.
Presenting officials with documents before the Commission, Sello said Mkhwanazi lied that the person who had died was his biological mother.
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Home Affairs documents obtained by the Commission, including Mkhwanazi’s birth certificate, proved otherwise and listed another woman as Mkhwanazi’s biological mother.
“It is upon receipt of the documents from Home Affairs that we concluded that he knew the lady who had passed away is not his mother. He misrepresented that fact, and he obtained his extension,” Sello said.
She added:
“My submissions are that you must be held in contempt for deliberately lying to the commission when you knew that the facts you were relying upon to obtain your postponement were false."
Mkhwanazi maintained he did not mislead the Commission. He said the woman who had died was his stepmother, who raised him.
“If you didn’t take it that way on that day, you were supposed to ask me. You had the programme with you and asked me when the funeral would be held. In culture, the woman who raised me is my mother,” Mkhwanazi responded.