PRETORIA - Controversial businessman Brown Mogotsi came under heavy scrutiny at the Madlanga Commission of Inquiry on Thursday.
His testimony was repeatedly challenged, raising questions about the credibility of his claims.
Advocate Sandile Khumalo opened questioning by asking why Mogotsi listed Chiawelo, Soweto, as his residential address in his February 2025 affidavit when he admitted under oath that he did not live there at the time.
Mogotsi insisted the residence had been his “second home” since the 1990s.
Khumalo then confronted Mogotsi on his claim that he served as an Umkhonto weSizwe (MK) Self-Defence Unit operative in 1993, despite his affidavit stating he was born in August 1979, which would have made him 13 years old at the time of his supposed service.
Further still, Khumalo questioned how Mogotsi could have served in the MK, given that it was disbanded in 1993.
FACT BOX
Source: Rebecca M. Kulik |
Pressed on another discrepancy, Mogotsi denied being born in 1979 and claimed his official birth year was an error created by the Department of Home Affairs.
He claims to have been born on 22 September 1977.
Mogotsi further revealed that he has no formal training in policing, intelligence gathering or forensic investigation, despite claiming he was contracted in 2020 to probe alleged irregularities within Crime Intelligence.
When Khumalo asked what qualified him to conduct that investigation, Mogotsi said it was his “basic training on crime intelligence and counter-intelligence”.
But Khumalo was not convinced.
“You have not supported this commission with any supporting documents that confirm your vision that you are conducting investigations as a contact agent. You say you were in Kenya, we don't have your flight tickets. We don't have communication between you and the person in Kenya.
“You say you followed ‘Cat’ Matlala to Durban, [yet] we don't have your flight tickets [nor did] you did not take photos of this place you followed him to.
“So there's absolutely nothing before us that supports the vision that you conducted any of these investigations that you are mentioning,” Khumalo countered.
Mogotsi maintained that state agents have no traces of identity. He says there is a record of all the work he has done which is in the possession of his handler