A recent report presented to Parliament's Standing Committee on Public Accounts disclosed that the Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Police Department (EMPD) employed officials with previous convictions, including murder. The report, which followed oversight visits and hearings in five metros, revealed that 63 EMPD officials had previous convictions, while 55 officials had 72 convictions during service for violent crimes, theft, fraud, and firearm offences.
The report also found that 114 EMPD officials had criminal cases against them, involving 173 charges registered between October 2014 and December 2025. Almost 60% of these cases took place in the last four years, with 12 charges being for murder. The charges included attempted murder, robbery, assault, kidnapping, fraud, corruption, extortion, conspiracy, and defeating the ends of justice.
The vetting process, which began in May, conducted a criminal record verification of 3,586 EMPD officials. This process found that 275 officers had previous convictions, including for murder, rape, theft, and fraud. However, the report noted that there was no clarity on whether officials charged with violent and serious crimes were taken off active duty or stripped of their weapons.
The EMPD has been under national scrutiny since its former deputy chief, Julius Mkhwanazi, and other senior officers were linked to organised crime networks. Mkhwanazi is currently in custody facing a murder charge and was fired by the City of Ekurhuleni in September. The report requested the municipality to provide an update on its vetting of EMPD officials, as well as the status of investigations, convictions, and pending cases.
The report also highlighted issues with the Ekurhuleni traffic department, which wrote off R2.7-billion, or 82%, of the traffic fines owed to it. The "critical IT governance breakdown" in the traffic department appeared to be part of a broader pattern of IT failures at the municipality. The report stated that Ekurhuleni's "IT control environment experienced significant regression, failing to provide reliable assurance over data integrity, security, system availability, and overall operational performance".
The report revealed that the 2024/25 audit found an estimated R2.5-billion loss due to IT control failures and cyber breaches. Key IT projects have not been properly managed, resulting in delays, underperforming or "entirely unused" projects, and poor management of software licensing. The municipality reported that it was putting "remedial measures" in place, including establishing a 24-hour security operations centre, activating "tamper-proof transaction logs", and strengthening cybersecurity controls.
Compared to the other four metros in the report, Ekurhuleni had relatively mild offender when it came to unauthorised, irregular and fruitless and wasteful (UIFW) expenditure, with R137.65-million in irregular expenditure during the 2024/25 financial year. However, the five metros as a whole recorded a total of R24.5-billion in UIFW expenditure during the same financial year. The Auditor-General found that no reasonable steps were taken to prevent misspending in any of the three categories, and investigations to determine whether value for money was obtained, or whether fraud or corruption was involved, were limited.
Key points
- The Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Police Department employed officials with previous convictions, including murder.
- The municipality's IT control environment experienced significant regression, leading to an estimated R2.5-billion loss due to IT control failures and cyber breaches.
- The five metros recorded a total of R24.5-billion in unauthorised, irregular and fruitless and wasteful expenditure during the 2024/25 financial year.
