The assassination of private security boss Marius van der Merwe in Brakpan has sent shockwaves through South Africa’s law-enforcement and political circles, just days after he was unmasked as Witness D at the Madlanga Commission.
According to police, the 44-year-old was shot dead outside his home in Brenthurst, Brakpan, on Friday night in front of his wife and children.
National SAPS spokesperson Brigadier Athlenda Mathe confirmed that officers found van der Merwe fatally wounded at the scene and have opened a murder case.
Who was Marius van der Merwe, Witness D at the Madlanga Commission?
Van der Merwe was a former Ekurhuleni Metro Police Department (EMPD) officer and owner of private security firm QRF Task Team.
His identity as Witness D became public only after he gave confidential evidence to the Madlanga Commission about alleged murder cover-ups and the reach of the so-called Big Five syndicate in Ekurhuleni law-enforcement structures.
Because of the risk to his life, his testimony was heard in camera and his name withheld, but key details were later reported once he agreed to be identified and after parts of his evidence were summarised in open sessions.
What he told the Madlanga Commission
In sworn evidence, van der Merwe described how a Brakpan robbery suspect died during a 2022 operation involving EMPD and SAPS members.
He told the commission that suspended EMPD deputy chief Julius Mkhwanazi instructed him to get rid of the body rather than register a standard case.
Van der Merwe said he was told to dump the corpse “in a dam or a mineshaft” and eventually left it in Nigel Dam because he feared he would be killed if he disobeyed.
His account formed part of a wider set of allegations about how senior officials and politically connected businessmen, including tenderpreneur Vusimuzi “Cat” Matlala, allegedly used rogue units, blue-light vehicles and off-the-books operations to protect criminal interests.
The commission has been probing claims that this Big Five syndicate infiltrated police and metro police structures, undermining investigations into political killings and organised crime across Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal.
Van der Merwe’s evidence was one of the most detailed first-hand accounts of how those networks allegedly operated on the ground.
Political reaction and fresh alarm over whistleblower safety
The Democratic Alliance condemned the murder as a direct attack on South Africa’s justice system.
In a statement, DA MP Glynnis Breytenbach described it as the “cold-blooded assassination of Marius ‘Vlam’ van der Merwe” and “a direct attack on the rule of law, designed to intimidate and frustrate the fightback against endemic corruption”.
“This kind of mafia-state behaviour, where whistleblowers are gunned down for telling the truth, is something our country has never before experienced at this scale. It is terrifying, it is brazen, and it is clearly intended to send a message of pure intimidation,” Breytenbach said.
The party warned that if people fear for their lives when they testify, “our justice system collapses”, and called for immediate, visible protection for all witnesses and whistleblowers linked to the Madlanga Commission and similar corruption and organised-crime inquiries.
“The DA is calling for the immediate protection of all witnesses and whistleblowers involved in the Madlanga Commission and in every other investigation into criminality and corruption. If people fear for their lives when they testify, our justice system collapses,” she added.
Police have not yet announced any arrests or identified suspects in the killing of Marius van der Merwe.
