Marius “Vlam” van der Merwe, a key witness known as Witness D at the Madlanga Commission was shot dead on Friday. The Madlanga Commission was jolted on Friday when it confirmed that Witness D, had been shot dead outside his Brakpan home, weeks after delivering testimony alleging an orchestrated murder cover-up involving suspended EMPD acting chief, Julius Mkhwanazi. Witness D’s identity was formally released following his death.
He was Marius van der Merwe, the man whose harrowing account of a 2022 killing and its alleged cover-up set off one of the commission’s most explosive sessions. Van der Merwe was shot dead outside his home in Brakpan home in Ekurhuleni on Friday night, the police said, adding that he was silenced with two bullets. In his partially in-camera testimony, Van der Merwe recounted how the ordeal began on April 15, 2022, when security firm boss Kobus Janse van Rensburg repeatedly pressured him to join a joint operation targeting a robbery suspect in Brakpan.
Although caring for his sick son, he eventually agreed. At the suspect’s home, Van der Merwe found what he called “a troubling mix” of individuals: EMPD officers aligned with Mkhwanazi, two SAPS members he found suspicious, and Jaco Hanekom, whom he described as “a SAPS informer of ill repute.”
