Former police general arrested over 100 rounds of SAPS ammo and Mfazi murder-file documents
The 57-year-old, who left the SAPS in 2009, was held by the National Cold Case Unit after a July search of his Centurion home and is due in the Johannesburg Magistrate's Court on Tuesday.
A former police general and presidential adviser has been arrested after police found more than 100 rounds of SAPS-issued ammunition and documents tied to the murder investigation of Lieutenant-General Sindile Mfazi at his home, the South African Police Service says.
The man, 57, was arrested by the SAPS National Cold Case Unit and is expected to appear in the Johannesburg Magistrate’s Court on Tuesday. As IOL reported on 20 October, the arrest followed a search-and-seizure operation at his Centurion home on 6 July 2026.
According to the police account, the ammunition seized included rounds for R5 rifles and 9mm firearms. The former officer left the SAPS in 2009. Police say there is no valid reason for him to hold state-issued ammunition, and he faces a charge under the Firearms Control Act 60 of 2000.
Investigators also took documents and electronic devices from the house which police say are believed to be relevant to the investigation into Mfazi’s murder. Mfazi, a deputy police commissioner, died on 8 July 2021.
Two things sit side by side in the police statement. One is a firearms charge, which turns on the question of lawful possession of ammunition after a member has left the service. The other is the seizure of material connected to a murder probe that, five years after Mfazi’s death, is still being worked by the cold case unit.
The arrest is a step in a process, not a finding. The man has not been convicted of anything, the ammunition charge is yet to be tested in court, and police have not said what the documents and devices are alleged to show. What happens at Tuesday’s appearance, and whether the case is postponed for further investigation, will be the first public indication of how the state intends to run it.
For a South African reader, the detail that matters is the source of the ammunition. R5 rifle rounds and 9mm ammunition are service-issue stock, and the state’s case rests on the claim that a man who left the police 17 years ago had no business holding them. The Mfazi file, meanwhile, is a live murder investigation, and the seizure of material said to relate to it is the part of this case that will draw the closest attention.
Police have not named the man. The Enquirer is not naming him either, ahead of his first court appearance and in the absence of a charge sheet in the public record.
