​“July 6 Did Not Happen by Chance” NICOC’s Dr Sifolo Exposes Planned Mkhwanazi Briefing

The July 6 media briefing by KwaZulu-Natal police commissioner Lieutenant-General Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi was not a random event. That is the clear message from Dr Ntandazo Sifolo, acting coordinator of the National Intelligence Coordinating Committee (NICOC), as he testified at the Madlanga Commission on Thursday.

Sifolo told the commission that the briefing was a deliberate step to bring ordinary South Africans onto the side of those fighting the infiltration of the criminal justice system by organised crime groups. “July 6 is not something that happened by chance,” he said. He described it as a call for the public to stand with people who want to protect the police, courts and other parts of the justice system from criminal networks.

The Madlanga Commission was set up after Mkhwanazi’s July 2025 briefing. In that appearance he alleged that senior officers and others were working with criminal cartels. He claimed the Political Killings Task Team had been closed down on purpose and that case files had been taken away. Those claims led President Cyril Ramaphosa to appoint retired Justice Mbuyiseli Madlanga to lead the inquiry into criminality, political interference and corruption in the justice system.

Sifolo’s evidence focuses on how intelligence structures track threats from organised crime and how those threats reach into the police and courts. He has already said that NICOC knew about the events that led to the July 6 briefing. Parts of his testimony are being heard in open session while more sensitive intelligence material is dealt with behind closed doors.

In his opening remarks Sifolo also spoke about the balance between media freedom and national security. He said the two should work together, not against each other. The public needs to know when the state fails, he argued, but some operational details must stay protected so that people who gather intelligence are not put at risk.

The commission continues to hear evidence about how criminal groups may have tried to influence investigations, appointments and court processes. Sifolo’s account adds an intelligence view to the picture. He is expected to explain what NICOC assessed and reported before and after the July 6 briefing, and how that information reached the highest levels of government.

For many South Africans the July 6 briefing marked the moment the scale of alleged infiltration became public. Sifolo’s testimony suggests that moment was planned, not accidental, and that intelligence structures saw it as a chance to win public support for cleaning up the justice system. The commission’s work will now test how much of that picture holds up under further questioning.

Source: https://x.com/SABCNews/status/2120867207563375090?a=DcaLSNOYdoL2Y1TqlC8&s=19