Death threats, arrests and murder plots. These are some of the allegations controversial policeman-turned-advocate Malesela Teffo has made against high-ranking police officials he believes are out to derail him from his job. However, he said he would not be prevented from finding out the truth about who really killed Orlando Pirates and Bafana Bafana goalkeeper Senzo Meyiwa.

 
Teffo’s allegations came to a head when he was arrested at the Pretoria High Court on Thursday, a dramatic scene that went viral on social media. He said the publicity attendant on the arrest helped foil his detractors’ plot. “I knew that, this time around, they’d be exposed. I was with my attorney. He said: ‘Let it happen. It will be good [for us],’” he added. At the time of his arrest, Teffo was representing four suspects – Muzikawukhulelwa Sibiya, Bongani Ntanzi, Mthobisi Mncube and Mthokoziseni Maphisa – accused of murdering Meyiwa.

The fifth suspect is Sifiso Ntuli, who is being represented by defence advocate Zandile Mshololo. Teffo was arrested after the trial had adjourned on a charge of contempt of court for failing to appear in the Hillbrow Magistrates’ Court on charges of assault and trespassing. He was subsequently granted R10 000 bail on Friday, with his case postponed until May 27. He had been arrested twice in the past – once for the same case and another time for an unrelated matter.

Own Cell

Teffo said this week’s arrest took place after a warrant was issued in January, but never served on him, despite his repeated attempts to get it. He believed the authorities wanted to use it to intimidate him. He said: They looked at me and saw they wouldn’t succeed in the Meyiwa case. It’s all about the Meyiwa case, but I won’t be intimidated. I’m confident that I’ll win the case.

He thought senior police officials were involved in the ploy to arrest him and that Minister of Police Bheki Cele wanted him off the Meyiwa case. He said that, even though Cele had managed to get the Meyiwa case started, he had had the wrong people arrested. Teffo claimed that the minister had wanted to take over the case again, but that he (Teffo) was an obstacle in his plans. Cele’s spokesperson Lirandzu Themba said the minister had nothing to say on this issue.

POLICE VERSION

Following Teffo’s arrest, national police spokesperson Colonel Athlenda Mathe said national police commissioner General Fannie Masemola announced to the nation that Gauteng police commissioner Lieutenant-General Elias Mawela would provide a full report on the matter. Mathe said Masemola had reported that Mawela had investigated the circumstances leading up to Teffo’s arrest. She said Teffo had previously been arrested on charges of common assault and trespassing after allegedly assaulting a female police member and entering Gauteng provincial police offices in contravention of a high court interdict prohibiting him from doing so.

“After failing to appear before the Hillbrow Magistrates’ Court on several occasions, including January 27 2022, a warrant of arrest (J165) was issued and withheld. The case was remanded to February 10 2022. Advocate Teffo was again not in court and bail was finally forfeited to the state. An instruction was then issued by the court for a warrant of arrest to be executed. Advocate Teffo was aware that a warrant of arrest had been issued, as he had contacted the investigating officer in this regard, proof of which the SA Police Service possesses.

“It’s also worth noting that Advocate Teffo has previously provided various residential addresses to secure his bail. These addresses were visited, but it was later discovered that he could not be traced, as he no longer resided at the identified addresses,” said Mathe. After being made aware that Teffo was appearing at the Pretoria High Court, Mathe said the investigating officer had consulted the director of public prosecutions.

While the intention was to execute the warrant outside the courtroom, she said the manner in which events unfolded made it challenging for the team to do this. She said they had a responsibility to arrest a suspect in order to secure his attendance in court. “Therefore the execution of the warrant of arrest in this instance was the initiative of the investigating officer in consultation with his commander, which forms part of the members’ daily duties,” she explained.

DEATH THREATS

Teffo said he had opened a case relating to death threats he learnt about in 2019. The case, he added, was currently with the Hawks in Germiston. According to Teffo, he was lured by a bogus lawyer to take up a case at the Johannesburg Labour Court in February of that year, under the pretence that it involved a dismissed police officer. The bogus lawyer, he claimed, initially asked to meet him near Centurion. However, the meeting did not materialise. He said that the next time he was at the court offices, a colleague approached him and told him that someone in the basement wanted to talk to him.

When he arrived in the basement, said Teffo, an unknown individual, who did not identify himself, was standing next to a security guard, but away from the security cameras. “He said: ‘Hey, bhuti wam, I don’t know you and you don’t know me. Please, I ask you one thing. There are people who phoned you to come here. I know how you got here. I’m tired that we’re always sitting in meetings and planning how to kill you in the province and seniors at head office are involved.’”

Teffo said the person was crying when he made this confession and also warned him not to leave the court building and go outside when called to do so. “He said: ‘Don’t go there [outside].“They’ll kidnap you and kill you outside Joburg.’” He said a similar incident took place last year when he was followed around by an unknown person. After taking a video of the stalker and sharing it with his contacts, he learnt that the person was an intelligence operative for the Gauteng police.

He said he came across the alleged operative in Sandton City shopping mall three times and a fourth time at the Mall of Rosebank. The alleged operative, he said, would try to have a chat with him. “His introduction was poor, but I told him to stop stalking me. I said it couldn’t be coincidence that I’d met him so many times and I threatened to shoot him if I met him [again]. However, we did meet again [in a shop] and he just looked down. “I went past him so that he could see that I’d seen him. He didn’t buy anything at the shop. I saw him leave.” Teffo said he later found out that his cellphone was being tracked.

TEFFO’S CELL

Following his arrest, Teffo said he was driven in a police van to the Hillbrow police station. On arrival, police put him in his cell. “I was in my cell. I’ve got a special cell there, number 1. I think they write ‘Teffo’s cell’ on it,” he chuckled. He said it had become customary that when he was arrested, police at the station would say to him “Ubuyile! [You’re back!] You know your cell.” Teffo said police officers knew him because he was representing their colleagues in unfair labour matters. “I was having fun on Thursday,” he laughed.