Alleged to have told a colleague to leave the country rather than testify (Day 151)
On 30 July 2026, the day after Johnson's evidence closed, IDAC state advocate Drushantha Ramsamy played the commission a recording she had made of a telephone call between them on 26 July - the same day Johnson wrote asking to be released from her post. In it Johnson is heard describing the inquiry as 'a shitshow' and, asked what Ramsamy should do if the commission called her, saying 'if they call you, leave the country'. She is also heard dismissing a legal point with 'this is Basic Law 101, I'm surprised you don't know it'. The evidence leaders put it that Johnson had sought to devise a way for Ramsamy not to testify, and indicated they would issue Johnson a Rule 3 notice so she can answer. Johnson did not know the call was being recorded and has not yet responded from the stand; the allegation is untested and she is presumed innocent.
Alleged to have driven 'Project Diversion' against Masemola and Khumalo (Day 151)
Ramsamy testified that Johnson personally spearheaded an investigation known inside IDAC as 'Project Diversion', targeting national commissioner General Fannie Masemola and Crime Intelligence head Lieutenant-General Dumisani Khumalo, and described it as an 'orchestrated attack' on the two police leaders. She said Johnson handed her a list of suspects on a pinkish-purple sheet on 5 December 2024 with the words 'these are the suspects, Chief and I discussed who is to be included' - 'Chief' being IDAC chief investigator Dylan Perumal - and that a section 27 document later put before the commission differed from the affidavit Johnson gave her the same day: 'my heart dropped to my stomach.' Ramsamy also said staff called Johnson 'Flip-Flop, Knee-Jerk' because instructions changed through the day after she consulted Perumal. All of this is one witness's untested account; Johnson has not answered it and is presumed innocent.
WhatsApps with Feroz Khan; accepted a 'very deep' personal relationship (Day 150)
Her final day closed on the relationship the commission had questioned since Day 144. WhatsApp exchanges between Johnson and suspended Crime Intelligence deputy head Major-General Feroz Khan were submitted in evidence: Khan greeting her as 'Hi gorgeous' and 'you gorgeous', the two writing about missing one another, arranging dinners and discussing her visiting his home. Johnson accepted the relationship was 'very deep' and personal - a material shift from her Day 144 evidence, where she called Khan 'very affable', dated the acquaintance to around a fiftieth birthday and said they had had no contact for roughly eighteen months. A personal relationship is not itself misconduct; it is on the record because of the separate untested allegation that she leaked a 2018 assault docket to Khan, on which she invoked her right against self-incrimination. Both are presumed innocent.
Resigned as IDAC head; Ramaphosa accepted with immediate effect (27 July 2026)
Johnson wrote to National Director of Public Prosecutions Advocate Andy Mothibi on Sunday 26 July 2026 asking to be released from her post within 24 hours, saying the step would serve the institutions and the country best and citing what she described as unprecedented attacks on her personally and professionally over the preceding five months. On Monday 27 July, acting on a recommendation from Justice Minister Mmamoloko Kubayi supported by Mothibi, President Cyril Ramaphosa accepted the resignation with immediate effect in terms of section 12(8)(a) of the NPA Act, waiving her three-month notice period; the Presidency thanked her for her years of service. She testified at the commission that same day and returned on 28 July as IDAC's former head. Open Secrets director Hennie van Vuuren told eNCA he was not surprised, arguing her testimony had already cast doubt on her leadership.
IDAC's own investigators dispute the 'A1' statement (Day 148)
The commission heard recorded voice notes in which two members of IDAC's own team - state advocate Drushantha Ramsamy and investigator Mantsha Raphesu, both of whom worked the docket, and whose names outlets reported inconsistently at the time but which the record has since settled - disputed the authenticity of a supplementary statement marked 'A1', attributed to complainant MP Fadiel Adams and later filed in court and before the commission by IDAC chief investigator Dylan Perumal. Ramsamy said only four statements were taken in her presence at the 6 January 2025 interview in Cape Town and asked why two officers in the same boardroom would have taken different statements that day; the other said the A1 'could not have been possible'. Johnson accepted the account did not hold: 'procedurally it does not make sense - you cannot have one team together, same day, same place.' Commissioner Advocate Sandile Khumalo SC said the material pointed to serious misconduct, and evidence leader Advocate Mahlape Sello SC asked whether the commission was 'confronted with a fraudulent Section 27'. Testifying the next day, Johnson said she had no knowledge of any fabrication and that nobody had raised it with her. The reporting frames this as an allegation that a statement was fabricated and a signature forged to strengthen the case; it is untested, Perumal is expected to give evidence himself, and he is presumed innocent.
Conceded IDAC may be running unauthorised investigations (Day 148)
Pressed by Commissioner Advocate Sesi Baloyi SC on how IDAC opened and ran its matters, Johnson accepted that investigators in her unit 'may well be conducting investigations of individuals that are not authorised' - outside the directorate's legal mandate and her own authorisation - and that IDAC was 'not supposed to solicit' complaints directly from the public. She also conceded she had never personally verified Brigadier Dineo Mokwele's qualifications before charges were brought, saying she relied on a briefing from her team that proved incorrect, and withdrew her earlier characterisation of Mokwele's appointment as a 'token appointment'.
Questioned over alleged selective prosecution (Day 149)
On her fifth day, Commissioner Advocate Sesi Baloyi SC asked why IDAC had never pursued allegations that Crime Intelligence funds were diverted to former police minister Bheki Cele, a matter she said fell squarely within the directorate's mandate. Johnson agreed she would ordinarily have been briefed on such a matter and said she was not - 'correct, and I didn't receive a briefing on this' - prompting Baloyi to observe that 'on the extreme end, it speaks to selective investigations and prosecutions if this was overlooked'. Johnson undertook to establish whether her former team had pursued it. Evidence leader Advocate Mahlape Sello SC separately pressed her on an April 2025 prosecution memorandum she signed authorising an investigation into Political Killings Task Team members, which Johnson said 'related to the promotions, and that was all it related to'. Nothing here is a finding; Cele and all named are presumed innocent.
Alleged 2018 interference in an assault case against Feroz Khan
Retired Hawks Colonel Kobus Roelofse testified (Day 137, 10 July 2026) that Johnson, then an NPA prosecutor, caused the contents of a police docket - arising from Brigadier Leonora Phetlhe's complaint that Khan assaulted her with a pen at Crime Intelligence headquarters in 2018 - to be emailed to a Crime Intelligence officer and handed to Khan before he had given his warning statement, allegedly letting him tailor his account. Answering it on Day 144, Johnson said her 'memory needed jogging', described Khan as 'very affable' and acknowledged a past social acquaintance including his 50th birthday, but said they had had no contact for about eighteen months after she distanced herself over allegations linking Khan to individuals connected to two murders. She invoked her right against self-incrimination on the detail and confirmed the allegations against her and Khan sit in an NPA docket weighing whether to prosecute her. Untested; both presumed innocent.
Conceded error over IDAC's mandate in the Khumalo case (Day 145)
Under questioning by evidence leader Advocate Mahlape Sello SC, Johnson conceded she had made an error in concluding that the corruption case against Crime Intelligence head Lieutenant-General Dumisani Khumalo fell within IDAC's mandate - a concession about the legal test applied to the section 27 referral that founded the prosecution. Commissioner Advocate Sesi Baloyi SC put it to her that IDAC had misused its power by moving against the Crime Intelligence officers too quickly and without a proper legislative basis; Johnson repeatedly answered 'no comment'.
The 'solicited' affidavit from Fadiel Adams (Day 145)
The commission pressed Johnson on whether IDAC improperly requested an affidavit from National Coloured Congress MP Fadiel Adams. She objected to the framing - 'I don't agree with solicited; we're not supposed to solicit' - but it emerged that IDAC investigator Dylan Perumal had told Adams the directorate could not proceed without a specific affidavit from him. Adams's complaint helped trigger the 2025 arrests of seven Crime Intelligence officers, including Khumalo. Untested; those named are presumed innocent.
Disclosed a 'get body bags ready' death threat (Day 144)
Johnson told the commission she received a threatening SMS - the first death threat of her prosecutorial career - in the days before Khumalo's arrest on 26 June 2025. It named her and IDAC colleagues and warned 'get body bags ready'; it was sent from an unregistered SIM and the sender was never identified. She said she had not linked it to the arrest at the time and so did not include it in her affidavit.
Named in an alleged 'Khan-IDAC cabal' (denied)
MK Party MP Vusi Shongwe alleged an 'Indian cabal' linking Johnson, senior investigator Suneel Bellochun, Feroz Khan and IDAC investigator Brian Padayachee. Padayachee rejected the claim (Days 139-140) and Johnson denied it from the stand, saying IDAC's investigations are 'driven by evidence, not politics'. The allegation is untested.
Testimony twice postponed; medical certificate dismissed as 'useless'
Summoned to testify on 13 July 2026 (Day 138), Johnson did not appear; her counsel said she had been rushed to hospital. Chairperson Madlanga said the certificate 'give[s] no information whatsoever' and her no-show drew presidential scrutiny from Cyril Ramaphosa, who appointed her. She was hospitalised before her eventual appearance and, on Day 145, the hearing adjourned early after she said her medication was having a debilitating effect.