Cash-in-transit task team commander Deena Govender sanctioned the extrajudicial killing of taxi owner Bevan Loftus at the behest of a rival taxi boss, the Independent Police Investigative Directorate (Ipid) deputy director Len John says.

In his testimony before the Madlanga commission on Wednesday, John said task teams had murdered cash-in-transit suspects and taxi owners after the Crime Intelligence division had fed them unverified information.

He said that although the commission’s terms of reference did not extend to police officers’ extrajudicial killings and despite the evidence, the task teams had escaped accountability.

John said that had created an environment where syndicates would seek to influence the task teams with gratification to kill their rivals.

He said there was prima facie evidence in the murder of taxi owner Loftus that implicated task team Lieutenant Colonel Deena Govender who had deployed the task team at the behest of Clive Naicker, an alleged leader of a drug and tow truck gang.

“It's a known fact that certain police officers at station level are linked to certain tow truck businesses. We also identified that some police officers will give jobs to certain tow trucks to get a payment from them.”

John said police were heavily involved in the tow truck industry which gave the industry leaders free range in the drug transport sector.

“The reason they do that is because they have police friends that don't even stop them and search them; even at roadblocks they have a free passage to go through,” said John.

He said the task team had been responsible for 149 intentional deaths in KwaZulu-Natal.

The task teams normally performed their operations between 11am and 3am when there were fewer people in the streets after receiving a tip-off from the Crime Intelligence division.

“All suspects and occupants present when the shooting takes place are killed by the task team, leaving no witnesses to the operation other than the members of the task team itself.”

John said SAPS commanders in charge of the operation were frequently unable to either identify the suspects they had killed or point to a case number on which the operation was based.

He said task teams were supposed to open an inquiry case before they moved to an operation even when they received critical tip-offs.

He said Colonel Govender's task team had acted on a tip-off about a cash-in-transit robbery from Crime Intelligence without following proper procedure. The task team had killed the suspect who was allegedly in possession of firearms and explosives.

John said the police could not provide either evidence that the suspect had been involved in cash-in-transit robberies or a case docket for the investigation.

He said the suspect had been a taxi owner who had received death threats from rival taxi owners and the task team had been used to eliminate him.

“The only reason that I made that connection is that the task team did not have any information pertaining to a cash-in-transit [heist]. However, we know that the deceased was involved in the taxi industry. And that is why we make that connection, because the same task team is involved in shooting other taxi owners,” he said.

John detailed numerous murder cases, among them Loftus, Ryan Santos, Chase Fynn, Michigan Hippolyte and Sihle Zondi, which he said the KZN task teams had carried out.

He said Ipid had not found evidence in police case dockets which linked the deceased to alleged crimes by the task team.

“However, there is considerable evidence to suggest that Lt-Col Deena Govender had been commissioned by Mr Clive Naicker of Roadstar Trucking to kill Mr Bevan Loftus in order to eliminate him as a competition in the tow truck and drug industries,” he said.

He said Govender’s vehicle tracking records and banking statements would show that he received close to R2.5 million. Loftus's father had approached the courts to interdict Govender from killing him after Naicker bragged that he had offered the task team the same amount for the murder.

Commission chairperson Mbuyiseli Madlanga said the killings involved gang members and suspected criminals who had been fugitives and that there could be extenuating circumstances to explain the murders.

John responded: “Despite members of the task team consistently alleging that they only open fire after having been shot at by suspects, in the overwhelming majority of cases there is no evidence of any SAPS member being shot, even in their bulletproof vests.”

He said Ipid had not been notified immediately about the task team’s “lost” murder cases and that police officers had left the crime scene before Ipid had arrived.

Commissioner Sesi Baloyi said that although the narrative John created pointed to a gang leader taking out a rival taxi owner using rouge police officers, Ipid would provide evidence of the allegations.

Evidence leader Matthew Chaskalson told the commission that subsequent evidence of an undercover crime operation to be held in camera would also support John's allegations.