The R5 Million Question: Top Cop Accused of Taking Kaizer Chiefs Boss’s Bribe to Bury Murder Dockets

Suspended Mpumalanga Provincial Commissioner Lieutenant-General Daphney Manamela pictured during a media briefing on 19 April 2026, where she made allegations of corruption against National Police Commissioner Fannie Masemola and Kaizer Chiefs executive Bobby Motaung.

By Mpho Dube, Editor-in-Chief, The Azanian  

Truth. Fearless. Unfiltered.

Mbombela did not sleep on Saturday. Suspended Mpumalanga Police Commissioner Lieutenant-General Daphney Manamela walked into a press room and named the men she says bought and sold justice in this province. 

National Police Commissioner Fannie Masemola, she alleged, took a R5 million bribe from Kaizer Chiefs executive Bobby Motaung. The payment, she said, had one purpose. Keep her out of office. Keep the dockets closed.

The dockets are not petty. They include fraud and corruption cases linked to the construction of the Mbombela Stadium. That project is stained by blood. Whistleblower Jimmy Mohlala was shot dead outside his home in 2009 after exposing rot in the tender process. Seventeen years later, Manamela claims his case still needs money to stay buried.

She told reporters that a provincial police officer confessed in February last year. The officer said he received R5 million. He said the money was shared with senior officers. The instruction was clear. Manamela must not return to work. Her return would reopen cases that powerful people want to keep shut.

Manamela said she was suspended by Masemola for enforcing discipline. She said she warned the national commissioner about her frustrations. She said he ignored her.

Instead, she alleged, he protected officers involved in extortion and corruption. She told the media that after her suspension, a provincial task team investigating serious crimes was disbanded.

The team was handling political killings, illegal mining, extortion, human trafficking and kidnappings. “We have been on a public trial for more than two years,” Manamela said. “Embarrassed. Humiliated. Undermined. Victimised. Accused by some of our colleagues and journalists with unsubstantiated and unverified information based on lies. Our dignity has been tainted as we touched and pressed the buttons that were never touched or pressed. We are prepared to stand by our words and face the consequences of being dismissed from the service, if need be.”

She questioned the Saps Excellence Awards held in Mpumalanga on 13 December 2025. Officers were given home appliances worth R25 000 each. Manamela asked where the money came from. The question still stands.

The allegation places Bobby Motaung at the centre of a criminal justice scandal. He is a Kaizer Chiefs executive. He is a businessman with reach into construction and politics. Manamela claims the R5 million came from him. She claims it was to buy her removal and to buy silence on fraud and corruption cases tied to him. 

These are allegations. They are not findings. No court has tested them. Masemola has not been charged. Motaung has not been charged. The law presumes innocence. This newspaper reports that presumption, and it reports the claims that now test it.

National police spokesperson Brigadier Athlenda Mathe said the Saps watched the briefing. She said the allegations are very serious and cannot be ignored. She said they must be subjected to the necessary investigative processes to establish the facts.

“Any allegations of misconduct, wrongdoing, interference with a criminal or political or any organisational failure are treated by the Saps with the utmost seriousness, irrespective of the rank or position of those involved,” Mathe told the SABC. “The matters raised must be subjected to the appropriate investigative processes, because firstly, we must establish the facts.”

Mathe said independent oversight bodies will be used to ensure impartiality and public confidence. She confirmed Manamela will be called in for consultation. “If there’s any wrongdoing, then decisive actions must be taken against those who are accused of wrongdoing.”

She rejected Manamela’s version of her suspension. “I don’t think that the narrative is true, but it remains a matter between the employer and the employee. General Manamela is aware of why she was suspended. It is not what she is alluding to.” Mathe added that Manamela currently faces a board on her fitness to hold office.

Kaizer Chiefs had not issued a statement at the time of publication. Bobby Motaung had not responded to requests for comment. Fannie Masemola had not spoken beyond the official Saps response. Their legal right to remain silent is noted. Their silence will be read against the scale of the claim.

The claim is this. The highest office in the South African Police Service can be rented for R5 million. The price of a dead whistleblower’s docket is negotiable. A provincial commissioner who refuses to negotiate gets suspended. A task team that chases political killings gets disbanded. 

If that is true, the state has lost its monopoly on legitimate force. It is leasing it out. If that is false, a senior officer has accused her commander of corruption on live television and risked her career on a lie. There is no version of this story where the SAPS emerges unharmed.

Jimmy Mohlala cannot speak. His docket can. For 17 years it has said nothing. On Saturday, Daphney Manamela said it was gagged with R5 million from Bobby Motaung, passed through police hands, and authorised at the top by Fannie Masemola.

Now the country needs three things. The dossier Manamela says she has. An investigation that does not report to the accused. The truth, without fear or favour.

Until then, every South African must live with the question Manamela asked

without asking it. How much does it cost to kill a case in this country. She put the number at R5 million. 

The state must prove her wrong. Or prove her right. There is no third option.