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A police task team boss is facing allegations of carrying out a R2.5m hit in KwaZulu-Natal linked to tow truck turf wars, the Madlanga commission heard on Wednesday. Len John, KwaZulu-Natal investigation deputy director of the Independent Police Investigative Directorate (Ipid), told the commission the task teams in some cases had become tools for drug dealers and gang members to kill rivals in turf wars. In most instances the task force members would plead “self-defence” after the killings, said John.He said task team commander Lt-Gen Deena Govender and his wife made cash deposits to purchase a property worth more than R2.5m months before and after the killing of Bevan Loftus, linked to a tow truck company. Read: ‘They go out to kill’: KZN police did not always act in self-defenceLoftus was killed on April 1 2023 with four other people ― Ryan Santos, Chase Fynn, Michigan Hippolyte and Sihle Zondi ― during an operation by the task team under the command of Govender after a hit of R2.5m was allegedly ordered by a competitor in the tow truck business. Ipid KwaZulu-Natal is investigating this and other deaths between April 2023 and May 31 2026 at the hands of three task teams probing the illicit drug industry, cash-in-transit industry and taxi industry.A day before the Loftus killing, his father, Gregory, launched a court application seeking a court order to stop the police from killing his son. Clive Naicker, a competitor and owner of Roadstar Trucking, allegedly ordered the hit during a tow trucking industry turf war in the province. “Bevan Loftus was informed that Clive Naicker had offered Lt-Col Deena Govender R2.5m to kill him. On January 25 2023, Bevan Loftus phoned Clive Naicker to confront him about this,” John testified. Govender is yet to testify before the commission and defend himself against the damning allegations.During investigations by the police watchdog, John said, the directorate was given the recording of Loftus’s call with Naicker.“In that recording [Loftus] inquired from Clive Naicker why he put a R2.5m hit on him. It is clear in the recording [Loftus] is aware that Clive Naicker engaged Deena Govender and his team to take him out. We believe due to the R2.5m hit, Deena Govender and his team went all out to look for Bevan and the other four deceased,” John said. Read: Ramaphosa orders criminal probe into Sibiya’s alleged corruption linksAccording to the task team they investigated Loftus after he was linked to the alleged drug and tow trucking gang First for KZN Towing.John said that before the shooting the directorate received intelligence information that Govender and the task team were going to “take out” Loftus. He said Loftus’ father, Gregory, told investigators that, days before his son’s killing, Govender and W/O Sivan Naidoo visited his house and told him they had come not to arrest “but to kill him [Bevan Loftus]” and he should ensure his funeral insurance was up to date.In the investigation of the fatal shooting, John said the directorate obtained evidence of cash payments made on behalf of Govender, earning less than R26,000 monthly, to conveyancing attorneys for a property purchase worth more than R2m between August 2022 and December 2023. John said vehicle tracker information of Govender showed he stopped his car on August 16 2022 metres away from Naicker’s address. John said that while police alleged Loftus and the other deceased shot at the police first and that they returned fire fatally, none of the task team members suffered any gunshot injuries. The scene looked staged, he told the commission.“If you look at the photo album of the shooting, the police indicated they retreated into hiding when they were shooting, but the four deceased were all lined up and they were shot at. “If you see some of the deceased, they have water on the clothing. It points out they may have been tortured first before being killed,” he said. Postmortem reports show the deceased had bullet wounds all over their bodies, from top to bottom, he said.Ipid has not obtained a conviction in the case and its evidence still has to be tested in court.If you see some of the deceased, they have water on the clothing. It points out they may have been tortured first before being killed.— Len John, KwaZulu-Natal investigation deputy director of the Independent Police Investigative DirectorateThe commission, established by President Cyril Ramaphosa to investigate the infiltration of the criminal justice system by corrupt elements, is not probing allegations of extrajudicial killings in KwaZulu-Natal. John said his testimony is relevant to the inquiry because there is a heightened risk that criminal syndicates influence task team members to kill rivals. He told the commission the task team led by Govender operates under dubious circumstances and police killed some people without any clear links to criminal investigations.John said he believes other taxi gangs sometimes used the task teams to “take out” competitors. The deaths of taxi bosses killed in police operations by the task teams remain under investigation.“In cases where the deceased are shot for involvement in CIT [cash-in-transit] heists, there is often no meaningful evidence linking them to any such offences in the province,” he said. “Despite members of the task team consistently alleging that they only open fire after having been shot at by suspects, in the overwhelming majority of cases there is no evidence of any South African Police Service (SAPS) member being shot, even in their bulletproof vests.”While the task teams identified were under the command of Govender and Capt Pedro Rodrigues, John told the commission that KwaZulu-Natal provincial commissioner Lt-Gen Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi could explain the formation and operations of the teams.Mkhwanazi, as the first witness of the commission, is expected to return to the commission to answer to allegations made against him by witnesses. In one case, a man linked to the taxi industry narrowly escaped shooting by police in May 2024 after calling Mkhwanazi, who allegedly advised him to drive to Pavillion Shopping Mall, Westville.“The members from the task team left the scene at Pavillion Shopping Centre without being duly processed as members implicated in an attempted murder case,” he said, adding there was no explanation or justification for the shooting. In that case, Ipid also found that Rodrigues and other police officers used unmarked SAPS vehicles with false registration plates with no official markings to show that they were SAPS vehicles, John testified.Business Day
