Madlanga Commission: SAPS ballistics analyst alleges kidnapping by armed police officers

Captain Laurance Makgotle, a ballistics expert, testified about his alleged kidnapping at the Madlanga Commission of Inquiry, revealing police involvement in the Armand Swart murder investigation. In a dramatic turn of events that unfolded at the Madlanga Commission of Inquiry on Monday, SAPS ballistics analyst Captain Laurance Makgotloe testified that he was kidnapped by armed police officers who forced him to rectify errors in a ballistics report related to the murder of a Vereeniging engineer Armand Swart on April 17, 2024. The alleged kidnapping took place on January 7, 2025, after Makgotloe had received a call from a police officer, Witness B, requesting his assistance with a crucial ballistics report in the murder case.

Before his alleged abduction, Makgotloe and his colleague, responded to a crime scene in Vereeniging, where Swart was fatally shot. The crime scene where Swart was killed yielded 22 exhibits, including six AK-47 fired bullets, 10 fired cartridges from a 9mm pistol, four bullets from another 9mm pistol and two bullet cores from an AK47 assault rifle. They were also notified about a second crime scene in Bramley, where firearms were confiscated, allegedly linked to the Vereeniging murder.

The Bramley case has 225 exhibits, including one AK47 assault rifle, 96 AK47 cartridges, one CZ brown pistol, one Parabellum 9mm pistol and magazines for Parabellum 9mm pistol. Makgotloe combined evidence from the Vereeniging crime scene with a firearms seizure in Bramley, uncovering 18 linkages between the two cases and other unsolved crimes.