Told the commission he does not know the alleged 'Big Five' or the men in the photograph (Day 172)
On 2 September 2026 evidence leader Advocate Lee Segeels-Ncube showed the commission a photograph recovered from the phone of murder-accused businessman Katiso 'KT' Molefe. Per SABC News and EWN, the commission's evidence is that it depicts five alleged 'Big Five' figures: Molefe, private security businessman Steve Motsumi, Ignatius Mothakathi, the man known as 'King Nyambose' (reported as Andrew 'Boy' Mthethwa by SABC News and EWN and as Jabu Mthethwa by TimesLIVE and The Citizen), and the late taxi boss Jotham 'Mswazi' Msibi. Lebeya said he knew neither the grouping nor the men: 'I have no knowledge of that organised criminal grouping at all, and I even doubt if it is registered as an organised crime project,' and, per The Citizen, 'I don't think that it is strange that we do not know all people in South Africa. I do not know them.' Segeels-Ncube put the denial against the rest of the record: 'You were the head of the DPCI and there have been generals that have come before the commission who have been afraid to mention some of these individuals. I just find it bizarre that you do not know any of these individuals.' No finding has been made on whether the denial is truthful, the 'Big Five' remains an alleged network, and everyone named in the photograph is presumed innocent.
The 'King Nyambose' thank-you message he says he never asked about (Day 172)
The commission put to Lebeya a WhatsApp message sent to him on 6 December 2024, the night Molefe was arrested at Sandhurst and Hawks units arrived at the scene, by the businessman who uses the name Malcolm X. Per The Citizen and EWN the message read: 'Thank you for sending people who verified these gentlemen are policemen and King Nyambose really appreciates all your efforts general,' followed by 'It is a pity the police you sent were not allowed inside the yard and the house.' Lebeya's evidence was that he did not engage with it - 'I was not really interested in the message itself' and 'I did not ask him who is this King Nyambose' - and that he has never met the person. Chairperson Justice Mbuyiseli Madlanga would not accept that from an experienced general: 'What were you being thanked for? And who on Earth is this Nyambose?' The inference the evidence leaders are exploring, that the deployment was arranged rather than verified, is untested. Lebeya denies it and is presumed innocent.
Knew the man who called him had been arrested with three police officers in 2023 (Day 172)
Per The Citizen, Lebeya confirmed on Day 172 that he was aware Malcolm X had been arrested in October 2023, together with three police officers, on allegations of corruption and extortion. The Sandhurst call came fourteen months later. His position remains that he acted because he was told people were impersonating Hawks officials, that he telephoned Major-General Ebrahim Kadwa and Lieutenant-General Patrick Mbotho to establish whether an authorised operation was running and neither knew of one, and that he sent members to verify and not to intervene. The admission does not establish impropriety; it removes the defence that he did not know the caller's history. The allegation of interference is untested, he denies it, and Malcolm X - whose October 2023 charges have not been determined - is also presumed innocent.
Closed his evidence on his own character: 'I am incorruptible' (Day 172)
Concluding three days of evidence across Days 168, 171 and 172, Lebeya defended his record. Per SABC News he told the commission 'I am incorruptible', and per TimesLIVE he described himself as 'a tool available to SA to contribute to the development of my beloved country' while acknowledging that the past year's events have tainted his reputation. He had told the commission on Day 168 that he has no friends in the criminal underworld. He gave all of that evidence at his own expense: the South African Police Service refused his application for state-funded legal representation on 6 January 2026, and on 27 August Justice Madlanga told him the commission had no power to intervene - 'I do not think we can come to the doctor's assistance' - and that his remedy was to challenge the police decision.
Says he was never told where the R200m cocaine was stored (Day 171)
On 1 September 2026 evidence leader Advocate Lee Segeels-Ncube took Lebeya to the roughly 541kg of cocaine, put at about R200 million, seized at Durban harbour in 2021 and later stolen from a walk-in safe at the Hawks' Serious Organised Crime offices in Port Shepstone. Per the Mail & Guardian, Lebeya said he learned of the storage location only after the theft: 'I can't recall him informing me as to where he has stored the drugs. So that is the view that I had, that he did not inform me.' That is irreconcilable with the evidence of Major General Lesetja Senona, the KwaZulu-Natal provincial head who directed that the drugs be taken there, who told this commission he had raised it with his national head: 'I then told [Lebeya] the Port Shepstone offices had previously safely stored a large quantity.' Per the African News Agency, Segeels-Ncube put the consequence to him as a fork - 'Because it's either that General Senona is lying, or you're lying, or you're both mistaken about what transpired' - and Lebeya declined to take it: 'I cannot say Senona had lied.' The commission has made no finding on which account is correct. Both men are presumed innocent.
Questioned on why the officer who chose the storage site was never polygraphed (Day 171)
The second strand of his Day 171 evidence was the aftermath of the theft. Per the Sowetan, once the cocaine was found to be missing Senona had the Hawks members involved in transporting it polygraphed, on evidence that the net extended as far as cleaners, while he was never polygraphed himself - although he was the officer who directed the storage and, on the evidence before the commission, held keys to the safe room. Segeels-Ncube asked why the national head permitted that. Lebeya's answer was structural: Senona was the supervisor who administered the disciplinary process at provincial level, and accountability for a provincial head's own conduct ran up the supervisory line rather than through the process he was himself running. He said that on learning of the theft he ordered both a fact-finding inquiry and a criminal investigation, and noted that the provincial officers had never asked for the consignment to be fast-tracked to a forensic laboratory, where it should have gone. Untested; no finding has been made against either officer and both are presumed innocent.
The physical picture of the Port Shepstone safe room (Day 171)
The commission also heard, per the Sowetan, that the CCTV cameras and alarms at the Port Shepstone office were not working and there was no round-the-clock guard, and that firearms held in the same place were left untouched when the cocaine was taken. The evidence before the commission has for months pointed to an inside job rather than a security lapse, and the untouched firearms are the reason: whoever entered took only the drugs. That is evidence of the circumstances of the theft. It is not a finding about any individual, nobody has been convicted of it, and everyone the commission has heard about in connection with it is presumed innocent.
Alleged to have sent Hawks members to interfere with the Molefe arrest (Day 168 answer)
The central allegation he was called to answer is that on 6 December 2024 he caused Hawks units to be deployed to Katiso 'KT' Molefe's Sandhurst home while the KwaZulu-Natal Political Killings Task Team and the Special Task Force were arresting him, and that the deployment amounted to interference in a lawful operation. Answering it on Day 168, Lebeya denied the premise: 'I do not know Mr Katiso Molefe. I was not contacted by Mr Katiso Molefe; I was contacted by Malcolm X.' He said he directed two senior managers to verify the allegation that persons were claiming to be members of the DPCI and to have been sent by him, and added: 'I have never instructed members of the DPCI to interrupt a legitimate police operation.' Untested; he denies wrongdoing and is presumed innocent.
The impostor justification, and more than thirty known cases (Day 168)
Pressed on why a call from a private businessman was enough to move Hawks units at all, Lebeya put it as a duty rather than a favour. Per eNCA he said he was aware of more than thirty cases in which people had impersonated Hawks officials, that he first met Malcolm X in April 2023, and that he regarded him as neither friend nor enemy. His formulation: 'A reasonable national head who is aware of the existence of imposters will not sit back and do nothing.' The commission has not ruled on whether that duty extends to deploying operational units to an address rather than establishing from within the police whether an authorised operation was under way.
Put the failure on the chain of command (Day 168)
Lebeya told the commission that the operation to arrest Molefe was never communicated to him and that he would not have deployed Hawks members had he known about it. Per EWN he located the obligation elsewhere: 'The obligation is put on the provincial commissioner, so they shall have discussed with General Khumalo: let us inform the national head if needed.' Read as an explanation it answers the allegation; read as an allegation of its own it puts a retired national head on the record saying a major takedown was run without telling the Hawks. Lieutenant General Dumisani Khumalo has not answered this account before the commission and is presumed innocent.
Refused Paul O'Sullivan an update on the Phala Phala investigation (Day 168)
Per SABC News, Lebeya testified that private investigator Paul O'Sullivan approached him seeking an update on the Phala Phala investigation while the matter was classified, and that he refused: 'I can't report to any other person about the progress of matters in the DPCI.' He said he questioned why a person who was not a lawyer in the matter would be asking, and that when the approach was made O'Sullivan indicated he was sitting with Dr Bejani Chauke, a political adviser to President Cyril Ramaphosa, and referred to him as a friend. Lebeya's own reading of it was cautious: 'I just felt somebody else was asking me to provide him with the status of the matter.' That is one witness's untested impression of a conversation. Neither O'Sullivan nor Chauke has answered it before the commission and both are presumed innocent.
Confirmed he took the Andrea Johnson complaint to Shamila Batohi (Day 168)
In July 2026 the commission heard from retired Hawks Colonel Kobus Roelofse that a complaint about the then head of the Investigating Directorate Against Corruption, Advocate Andrea Johnson, was brought to Lebeya, who raised it with the then National Director of Public Prosecutions, Advocate Shamila Batohi, and asked for an independent prosecutor to be appointed; and that Johnson subsequently appeared to know both the complaint and the complainant's identity. Per SABC News, Lebeya confirmed on Day 168 that he discussed the allegations against Johnson with Batohi. That closes one link in the chain from the person who forged it, without deciding the contested part of it. Johnson denies the surrounding allegations; Batohi has not given evidence to this commission on the point; both are presumed innocent.
Appeared at his own expense after the police refused legal funding (Day 168)
Per The Citizen, Lebeya's attorney Eric Nwedo told the commission that his client was appearing at his own cost. Lebeya applied to the South African Police Service for state-funded legal representation on 12 November 2025 and was refused on 6 January 2026. Nwedo argued that the deciding official, Deputy National Commissioner Lieutenant General Tebello Mosikili, had a conflict of interest because she had previously served under Lebeya, and called the reasons frivolous, singling out the claim that 'his version differs with the version of other Saps witnesses' as implying that the police expected its witnesses to align. He noted that Lebeya had eventually been funded for the Khampepe Commission after an initial refusal. Justice Madlanga said the commission had no power to direct the police to reconsider and that the remedy was a review or a challenge: 'I do not think we can come to the doctor's assistance.'