Impempe

Marius Van Der Merwe – Witness D

 

 

Marius van der Merwe (“Witness D” / “Vlam”)

Private security owner and former EMPD officer — testified anonymously as “Witness D” before the Madlanga Commission (Nov 2025) on EMPD torture-killing and corpse disposal; assassinated weeks later in Brakpan (5 Dec 2025)

 

Outcome

Killed in a drive-by shooting outside his Brakpan home on 5 December 2025, in front of his wife and children — weeks after his explosive testimony; March 2026 arrest of ex-SAPS Special Task Force operative Matipandile Sotheni, who was denied bail in June 2026 as orchestrators remain under investigation

 

Role

Founder and owner, QRF Task Team (private security, mining infrastructure protection, East Rand Gauteng); former officer, Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Police Department (EMPD); anti-illegal-mining activist sealing disused shafts against zama-zama syndicates

 

Sector

Private security and law enforcement — mining infrastructure (diesel, coal, copper theft), illegal mining interdiction, municipal policing

 

Evidence Status

Sworn testimony before the Madlanga Commission of Inquiry (November 2025) under the protected codename “Witness D”: eyewitness account of April 2022 torture-killing of Mozambican suspect Emmanuel Mbense by EMPD officers and private security operatives using “tubing” (plastic-bag suffocation) during an interrogation in Brakpan; testimony that suspended EMPD Acting Chief Brigadier Julius Mkhwanazi ordered disposal of the corpse in a mine shaft or Spaarwater Dam; subsequent reports filed with the Independent Police Investigative Directorate (IPID) and the Hawks

 

Commission Reference

Madlanga Commission of Inquiry into Criminality, Political Interference and Corruption in the Criminal Justice System; IPID and DPCI/Hawks investigations; SAPS murder docket and Brakpan/Pretoria court proceedings against Matipandile Sotheni (charged March 2026; bail denied June 2026)

 

Summary

Marius van der Merwe (1984 – 5 December 2025), known by the alias “Vlam” (Flame) and the protected codename “Witness D,” was a South African private security company owner and former Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Police Department (EMPD) officer who became a high-profile whistleblower on institutional corruption, police brutality and organised crime in Gauteng. After leaving the EMPD he founded QRF Task Team, a private security firm specialising in mining infrastructure protection on the East Rand, leading operations against syndicates stealing diesel, coal and copper, and actively sealing disused mine shafts to disrupt zama-zama networks. In November 2025 he testified anonymously as “Witness D” before the Madlanga Commission of Inquiry, alleging that in April 2022 he witnessed EMPD officers and private security operatives torture Mozambican suspect Emmanuel Mbense to death by “tubing” — suffocation with a plastic bag — during an interrogation in Brakpan. He further testified that senior leadership, specifically suspended EMPD Acting Chief Brigadier Julius Mkhwanazi, ordered him to dispose of Mbense’s corpse in a mine shaft or the Spaarwater Dam; fearing for his life he complied, but later reported the incident to IPID and the Hawks. Weeks after his testimony, on 5 December 2025, Van der Merwe was gunned down in a drive-by shooting outside his Brakpan home in front of his wife and children, having previously warned that criminal syndicates were stalking him. His killing triggered national outrage, condemnation from The Presidency, trade unions and civil society, and renewed calls for whistleblower protection reform. In March 2026 authorities arrested 41-year-old Matipandile Sotheni — a highly trained former SAPS Special Task Force member turned private security contractor — on charges of murder and conspiracy to commit murder; he was officially denied bail in June 2026 as investigations continue into the orchestrators of the hit.

 

Sources