Letter to Mahlamba Ndlopfu: The Steinhoff crew were amateurs compared to KT Molefe

Katiso ‘KT’ Molefe sits behind bars on a rap sheet that reads like a Netflix crime series. And as we all know in this Republic of the Guptas, every accused kingpin is innocent until the docket disappears.

By Bhekisisa Mncube

10 Oct 2025

Ah, Chief Dwasaho! Today, I present our very own Time Magazine “Entrepreneur of the Century” Katiso “KT” Molefe, shunned by his homeland yet hustling from varsity dorms to borders to airport runways.

To the Loyal Five, this is part three (read parts one and two here and here) and the final instalment in our series on unsung heroes; yes, heroes, not heroines. This column was never designed to be politically correct; here, things are called by their first names.

KT Molefe, for instance, is the Sandton businessman, not the caricature conjured by the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) and an inert Gauteng police service, which accuse him of unspeakable sins.

KT Molefe and birds of a feather

My leader, let me break it down for the politically inept, the “news-is-boring” crew. KT Molefe comes from the same stock as Mr Brown Mogotsi and Vusimuzi “Cat” Matlala.

Around these parts, we call them the South African Police Service’s (SAPS) Lieutenant-General Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi’s Famous Trio, card-carrying members of the Big Five. A cartel that allegedly trades in opioids, political influence, blue lights, government tenders, blood, blackmail, extortion and all the usual sins that grease the wheels of our beloved Republic.

(Sub-editors will add the keyword “allegedly” where it saves me and this newspaper that runs on “donations and membership fees” from a defamation summons. I, son of MaMlambo, cannot be bothered. My son is an admitted attorney of the High Court — take that, haters.)

Another one whose cats and dogs bolt for the back room when he arrives home is Lieutenant-General Dumisani Khumalo, SAPS Divisional Commissioner for Crime Intelligence. He turned up at the Madlanga Judicial Commission of Inquiry into Criminality, Political Interference, and Corruption in the Criminal Justice System, wagged a trembling finger at KT Molefe and businessman “Cat” Matlala, and anointed them leaders of the so-called Big Five cartel.

Geez, believing a spy chief? Really now. These are the same spooks who misplace their own cash stashes, whose PowerPoint slides end up in the heads of civilians with priors, whose “safe houses” are mapped out in Sunday papers, and yet they expect us to swallow their bedtime stories about cartels.

The charge sheet of ‘KT’ Molefe

The state paints Katiso “KT” Molefe not as a businessman, but as the godfather of Lieutenant-General Mkhwanazi’s famous Trio, a key branch with all members in good standing of the so-called Big Five cartel. His business portfolio, according to prosecutors, is written in red.

Murder and conspiracy

DJ Sumbody (Oupa John Sefoka) and his bodyguards, Sibusiso Mokoena and Sandile Myeza, were cut down in a hail of bullets in 2022. The state says Molefe signed the cheque for that hit.

DJ Vintos (Hector Buthelezi) was assassinated in 2022. Prosecutors insist this was another Molefe-approved side hustle.

Don Tindleni was gunned down on the N1 in 2023 while driving. A case of mistaken identity, but still a body on the pile.

Armand Swart, a Vereeniging engineer, was riddled with 23 bullets outside his workplace in 2024. Another wrong man, another tally in the murder column.

Weapons of mass destruction

An AK-47 and three pistols seized from Molefe’s circle are allegedly linked to 18 murders and attempted murders. Police call it hard evidence; the defence calls it a fishing expedition.

Conspiracy and racketeering

Prosecutors argue Molefe’s real business model was blackmail, tender manipulation, drug trade, cross-border carjacking, kill-for-hire, and extortion. Allegedly, his balance sheets show blood instead of equity.

My leader, KT Molefe sits behind bars on a rap sheet that reads like a Netflix crime series. And as we all know in this Republic of the Guptas, every accused kingpin is innocent until the docket disappears, the magistrate recuses himself, the investigating officer turns up dead, and the forensic team never gets paid. If I were you, I wouldn’t trust a word from the NPA.

The parliamentary twist

In a rare moment of candour, Lieutenant-General Mkhwanazi told the parliamentary ad hoc committee probing criminal justice capture this week that Molefe and his crew were not brought down by high-flying generals or elite tactical units, but by two stubborn junior sergeants. A multibillion-rand cartel cracked open by the rank and file, exposing the Big Five from the bottom up. My sister is also a police sergeant; again, haters, take that.

Mathematics of corruption

In the early days of my hustle here, I drew the welcome usually reserved for Julius Malema at a Broederbond braai. Why? I dared suggest that some of our homegrown hustlers in the corruption economy did not understand the mathematics/economics of their trade (read here).

I blamed it, perhaps unfairly, on black folk having been force-fed that aberration called Mathematics Literacy. Yes, I’ll admit, I was wrong to pick on the poor subject and (dis) honourable members. But I was right in insisting that if you are going to steal, at least dream big and study the mathematics of corruption.

Molefe is no gangster

Comrades read this slowly to those without matric, a tender or two, a rusty AK-47 or blue lights: KT Molefe is not a gangster. He is the embodiment of mastering one’s trade. Did you know the man holds a bachelor’s degree in economics from the University of Johannesburg? I have long suspected the institution of being a little too cosy with comrades clocking in and out. Do not ask. He then collected a master’s in development studies from the University of Limpopo. You had not heard they have a varsity? Keep up.

Now, please work with me as I demonstrate Molefe’s hidden wizardry. Sebastien Investment and Logistics Ltd JV won, “fair and square”, a multibillion-rand contract from Matjhabeng Local Municipality in the Free State to convert the abandoned Welkom airfield into an international cargo hub. Price tag: R350-billion (R350,000,000,000).

If your eyes do not water, your pockets will bleed.

Molefe, a magician

Because he has both a nose for business and a certificate to wave in boardrooms, Molefe, according to reporting, registered the company two days after the tender was advertised. By adjudication time, the same outfit boasted the highest Construction Industry Development Board (CIDB) grade, 9CE.

For the uninitiated, the “9” means no ceiling on project value. The “CE” means civil engineering, the serious stuff: roads, bridges, dams, water and sanitation, large-scale works.

In plain language, Grade 9CE is the English Premier League. Molefe, allegedly, climbed that ladder in months, a marker of a genius.

Enter the free press (free for whom?) wielding calculators with dead batteries. At that White Monopoly stokvel called Naspers, owners of City Press and News24, a journalist swears Molefe “hijacked” the tender from one King Michaels.

Yet they cannot produce the basics to back this ludicrous allegation: an ANC membership card, proof of January 8 donations, ownership of a VIP security company, the half-built clinic, a photo with the Big Five cartel, or, at the very least, a selfie with the ward councillor.

Instead, we are told that a tender capable of feeding several generations of the revolution’s aristocracy should have gone to a nobody. The audacity of journalists without a degree in economics is staggering.

Truth or dare?

My leader, the truth? KT Molefe is a far better businessman than those amateurs who nearly sank Steinhoff. Remember Markus Jooste, the CEO who cooked the books until they burst, blowing a just over R100-billion ($7.4-billion) crater in pension funds and retail empires from here to Europe? In the end, Jooste committed suicide rather than face the music.

Compared to that circus, KT Molefe fits the bill of the Sandton businessman, while Steinhoff’s executives were running a correspondence course in Creative Accounting for Beginners.

Applied tendernomics

Therefore, KT Molefe should be crowned the Time Magazine Sandton Businessman of the Century. Naturally, he is a summa cum laude graduate of the Republic’s most popular subject, Applied Tendernomics.

We cannot, Comrade Leadership, underestimate the power of higher education. Thus, KT Molefe’s prosecution should be halted, and instead, he can do community service by rolling out entrepreneurship across schools, prisons and universities.

He could even host master classes for politicians of all hues, from councillors with no matric to cadres armed with dodgy master’s degrees, ministers flaunting honorary doctorates and funny professorships from China, and above all, the elite few boasting an NQF Level 10 in looting.

Till next week, my man. Send me to the Ad Hoc Committee for Entertainment, mostly broken English. DM

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