The Judicial Commission of Inquiry into allegations of state capture, chaired by Deputy Chief Justice Raymond Zondo, was presented with explosive testimony on Tuesday that threatens to deepen the already dark legacy of the Cato Manor police unit. Retired KwaZulu-Natal Director of Public Prosecutions, Advocate Moipone Noko, claimed under oath that members of the now-disbanded, scandal-ridden unit were allegedly offered a sum of up to R1 million to assassinate a prominent member of a taxi association.
The allegation, delivered in Noko’s characteristically measured tone, peeled back another layer on the unit’s operations, suggesting its activities may have extended beyond the extra-judicial killings for which it is infamous into the realm of paid contract hits.
The Allegation: A Bribe for a Hit
Advocate Noko testified that the information came to her office during her tenure, reportedly through internal channels and informants within the police service itself. She stated that the offer was made to specific members of the Cato Manor Serious and Violent Crimes Unit—a unit once lauded for its conviction rates but later revealed to be a death squad implicated in dozens of unlawful killings.
“The intelligence we received indicated that an amount, reportedly as high as one million rand, was on the table. The instruction was to eliminate an individual who was a known figure within the taxi industry in KwaZulu-Natal,” Noko stated before the commission.
While she did not name the intended target during her initial testimony, citing ongoing sensitivities and potential risks, sources close to the inquiry suggest the individual was a high-ranking member of a taxi association locked in one of the province’s notorious and violent route wars. The alleged motive was to resolve a business dispute through assassination, using police officers as the weapon.
Context: A Unit Shrouded in Murder and Corruption
The Cato Manor unit, officially disbanded in 2012, is the subject of multiple ongoing murder trials. Its members are accused of operating as a hit squad, kidnapping, torturing, and murdering suspects—and allegedly innocent individuals—then staging crime scenes to justify the killings. The so-called “Cato Manor 30” trial remains one of the largest police corruption and murder cases in South African history.
Noko’s allegation posits a new dimension: that the unit, already operating outside the law, may have also been for hire to private or criminal interests. This dovetails with long-standing whispers in law enforcement circles about the infiltration of the taxi industry’s violent rivalries into police ranks.
A Failure to Act?
A critical line of questioning from evidence leaders focused on what action Noko’s office took upon receiving this intelligence. She indicated that the information formed part of a broader, complex web of allegations against the unit that were immensely difficult to prosecute due to witness intimidation, evidence tampering, and what she described as “active resistance from within the police service itself.”
“The environment was extremely hostile. Witnesses would disappear or recant. Dockets would go missing. There was a wall,” Noko testified. Her statement implies that the alleged hit offer, like many other allegations against the unit, was stifled by systemic obstruction.
Implications for the Inquiry and Beyond
The testimony places a renewed spotlight on the intersection of police criminality, the taxi industry, and the alleged weaponization of state institutions. For the Zondo Commission, it raises pointed questions:
- Who allegedly offered the money?
- Was the hit carried out? If not, why?
- How high did the knowledge of this alleged offer go within the SAPS and prosecuting authority?
- Does this indicate a pattern of the unit acting as mercenaries?
The Commission has indicated it will pursue this line of inquiry, likely calling further witnesses from the taxi industry and former police intelligence. For the families of those killed by the Cato Manor unit, Noko’s words offer a grim suggestion that their loved ones may have been victims not of rogue “crime fighting,” but of a more venal and chaotic criminal enterprise operating under the badge of the state.
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