Ekurhuleni metro police deputy chief fired while behind bars on Brakpan murder charge

Julius Mkhwanazi is no longer the deputy chief of the Ekurhuleni Metro Police Department. He was dismissed from the post, which he had held while suspended since 11 November 2025, and the dismissal lands while he sits in custody.

The dismissal and the custody are two separate tracks of the same story. A court refused him bail earlier this week, and he remains behind bars alongside five co-accused who were refused bail in the same proceedings.

The charges he faces are murder, robbery and defeating the ends of justice, all connected to the killing of businessman Emmanuel Mbense. Mbense was allegedly killed at his home in Brakpan before his body was dumped at a dam near Nigel in April 2022.

The murder case is not the only matter against him. He faces further criminal charges in other matters, and in those he had been granted bail. He has also been implicated at the Madlanga Commission.

eNCA reported the dismissal and the bail refusal, and the sequence of events is on the public record.

What the dismissal means for the metro police

The Ekurhuleni Metro Police Department is the uniformed force responsible for traffic enforcement, bylaw enforcement and public order in one of the country’s largest metros. The person who held its second most senior post is now out of the service entirely, rather than suspended on full pay pending the outcome of a trial.

That matters to residents of the metro for a plain reason. A suspension preserves a post and a salary while a case runs. A dismissal ends the employment relationship, and it allows the department to fill the position permanently instead of holding it open.

It also matters to the officers who served under him. A deputy chief facing a murder charge is a fact that hangs over a command structure, and the department now has a vacancy at the top of it.

The charges, and where they stand

Mkhwanazi faces murder, robbery and defeating the ends of justice in the Mbense matter. The killing dates to April 2022, when Mbense was allegedly killed at his Brakpan home and his body left at a dam near Nigel.

He and five co-accused were refused bail this week. Separate matters are still before the courts, and in those he had been granted bail before the latest refusal.

He has also been implicated at the Madlanga Commission, the judicial commission of inquiry whose work has touched on the conduct of officials and the systems meant to hold them to account.

No finding of guilt has been made in the murder case. The charges are allegations that the courts will test, and the refusal of bail is a decision about custody pending trial, not a verdict.

What happens next

The criminal case against Mkhwanazi and his five co-accused continues in custody following the bail refusal. The metro police post he held is now vacant, and the department can move to fill it. The commission record in which he is implicated remains part of the wider public account of how the metro’s policing has been run.

Source: eNCA, Julius Mkhwanazi fired