Commissioner Says Andrea Johnson Lied to Parliament as New Documents Surface at Madlanga Commission
State Advocate Drushantha Ramsamy returned to the Madlanga Commission on 11 August 2026 with new documents on the Mokwele and Medicare24 matters. Commissioner Sesi Baloyi stated on the record that Andrea Johnson lied to Parliament’s Ad Hoc Committee on Police about when a key referral was received. Ramsamy also testified about an undisclosed affidavit, a report obtained through the Minister of Police, and a remark from Johnson about a Crime Intelligence brigadier. The hearing was adjourned due to Ramsamy’s illness and resumes on 14 August 2026.
Drushantha Ramsamy was back before the Madlanga Commission of Inquiry on 11 August, working through a full day of testimony despite flu and bronchitis. By the end of the session, Commissioner Sesi Baloyi had told her directly, on the record, that Andrea Johnson’s account to Parliament does not hold up against the documents in front of the commission.
Ramsamy opened by clarifying evidence from the previous week, stressing that she draws no conclusions of her own and is presenting the timeline as it stands. She told the commission that on 8 April 2025, Dylan Perumal and Brian Padayachee mentioned they were obtaining minutes from DA MP Ian Cameron. The very next day, Cameron’s affidavit was drafted and commissioned by Padayachee. That affidavit states audio, video and minutes from a 2 April 2025 portfolio committee meeting were attached. Ramsamy testified she has never seen those recordings or minutes, and told Commissioner Baloyi that IDAC has no system logging what documents come in for this matter, unlike every other project she has worked on.
The testimony then turned to the section 28(1) authorisation for the Mokwele matter, the one Johnson presented to the commission dated 30 May 2025. New documents surfaced this session. On 16 July 2025, months after that date, project manager Tlale emailed Ramsamy and Advocate Hlatshwayo 6 attachments captioned as soft copies of their authorisations. One was addressed from Ramsamy to Johnson and dated 30 May 2025. Ramsamy told the commission she did not prepare it. A second document, also dated 30 May 2025, covered the Mokwele matter itself, and she said she did not prepare that one either.
Chairperson Mbuyiseli Madlanga asked who did prepare the documents. Ramsamy said the email trail confirms it was Tlale, the project manager, not a prosecutor. She said Tlale’s own reply confirmed only 1 of the 2 authorisations was signed as of 16 July 2025, more than a month after the Mokwele arrests took place. When Ramsamy confronted Tlale in person, Chairperson Madlanga had the moment placed on the record: Tlale responded by shrugging.
Ramsamy testified she has never seen any signed section 28(1) authorisation for the Mokwele matter other than the one Johnson presented to the commission, which she maintains is fabricated.
She also described a meeting in which Johnson, discussing the acting head of Crime Intelligence vetting, Brigadier Krishnadutt, told her: “Drew, you will be embarrassed to be Indian.” Johnson then instructed her to find evidence to charge Krishnadutt, despite the brigadier never having appeared anywhere in 6 months of investigation documents. Perumal later told Ramsamy he had searched and found nothing. Ramsamy testified she later learned Krishnadutt had been promoted to brigadier ahead of Johnson’s own husband, who works in the same division.
A separate thread concerned a report from the Inspector General of Intelligence. Ramsamy said IDAC was told in January 2025 that a Crime Intelligence investigation could not be shared while still active. By September 2025, Perumal told the team that Minister of Police Senzo Mchunu had arranged for the report to be flown to him in the Eastern Cape. Ramsamy produced a letter dated 2 April 2025 showing the investigation was still unfinished at that point. Perumal called the report golden before Ramsamy had read it. Once she, Hlatshwayo and Advocate Serunye reviewed it, Serunye’s assessment was that it took the case no further.
Ramsamy also testified that on 28 January 2026, Padayachee emailed her an affidavit from Major General Khan that had in fact been commissioned in September 2025. She had already responded to defence requests for further particulars on 3 of the 4 accused without knowing the affidavit existed. She told the commission that not long after she raised the failure in writing, she was removed from the matter.
The most significant new material concerned the Medicare24 matter. Ramsamy testified that Johnson referred to it only as the SAPS contract or the Tembisa contract from 22 January 2025, the same day as her private meeting with Minister Mchunu. On 16 April 2025, Perumal told Johnson that Advocate Chabalala had already drafted a section 28(1) authorisation for the matter and sent it up the chain, without any section 27 referral yet in existence. Johnson was furious, telling Perumal he had no idea what he had done. Ramsamy’s own notes from that meeting record that General Charity Matlou of SAPS Risk Management was named as the referral complainant only after the authorisation had already been drafted, the reverse of what the law requires.
On 13 May 2025, Johnson emailed the team confirming she had already received the pre-drafted authorisation application and wanted to sign it by that Thursday, before any referral affidavit existed. When Johnson later told Parliament’s Ad Hoc Committee on Police that the section 27 referral was received on 16 February 2025, the documents told a different story. General Matlou’s actual referral affidavit is dated and commissioned on 6 June 2025, more than 3 weeks after Johnson’s own email was already discussing authorisation.
Ramsamy told the commission: “How can it be a 27 referral if the authorisation is done on the 16th of May? The Act says 27 referral and then authorisation. They were working backwards.”
Commissioner Baloyi put it on the record: “Advocate Johnson did not tell the truth in Parliament to the Ad Hoc Committee when she said she received the section 27 referral on the 16th of February 2025. That was an outright lie, looking at these documents.” Ramsamy agreed.
A separate Matlou affidavit revealed that the Medicare24 investigation did not originate with the National Commissioner, as Ramsamy had understood throughout. It began on 9 January 2025 with a direct request from the Minister of Police.
The hearing was adjourned before this thread was completed, with Ramsamy too unwell to continue. Her testimony resumes on 14 August 2026.
