The KwaZulu-Natal High Court in Durban has ordered businessman Calvin Mathibeli to apologise and retract allegations he made that provincial police commissioner Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi was “a criminal or corrupt” and involved in illegal killings.
In a ruling handed down on Friday, judge Sanele David Hlatshwayo interdicted Mathibeli from publishing claims that the commissioner “abuses police authority”, “is captured by private interests”, “issues instructions to kill persons or participates in unlawful killings” or “acts unlawfully or dishonestly in the execution of his official duties”.
The order follows an urgent application brought by Mkhwanazi in his personal capacity after Mathibeli accused him of harassment, intimidation and illegal raids. Officers had searched Mathibeli’s properties. He said that in December he had been warned of a plot to kill him and that police later surrounded his home with K9 units and the Political Killings Task Team using what he described as a fraudulent warrant.
He further alleged that officers had assaulted his security staff, seized 14 licensed firearms without proper paperwork and verbally abused his wife and sister while seeking information about his children’s school.
In his court application, Mkhwanazi said Mathibeli’s allegations were false and defamatory.
Mathibeli was directed to “remove, delete and retract all defamatory publications” within 24 hours of being served the order. If the statements were broadcast on television or radio, he must issue public retractions on the same platforms.
Judge Hlatshwayo found that a reasonable person would understand the statements to mean that the provincial commissioner was “a criminal and corrupt” and unworthy of office.
He said the remarks were “defamatory and extremely damaging” and their continued circulation would cause “irreparable harm” to Mkhwanazi.
He ordered Mathibeli to pay the costs of the application, including the costs of two counsel.
Mkhwanazi was directed to “institute an action for damages, if any, against the respondent within 60 days of the date of this order, failing which this order shall lapse”.
Kagiso Rabada and the thin margin of forgiveness at T20 World Cup:
In the quiet corners of the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad, where the dust of the Super Eights has finally settled, Kagiso Rabada sits with the air of a man who has looked into the abyss and seen a way back.
South Africa are into the semifinals of the 2026 T20 World Cup, their record a pristine six-from-six. On paper, it looks like a march of dominance; on the field, it has been a tightrope walk over broken glass. For Rabada, the premier strike bowler of a generation, the journey to the final four has been defined by a single centimetre of white paint and a profound shift in his role in the pace pack.
While the Proteas’ nine-wicket thumping of the West Indies on Thursday all but guaranteed their knockout spot, Rabada’s mind remained anchored to an earlier near-miss against Afghanistan. It was a game that nearly derailed a nation’s hopes, all because of an infamous overstep.
Rabada had Noor Ahmed caught for what should have been the final wicket. Instead, the siren wailed, the bails were replaced and the match spiralled into two frantic Super Overs. Rabada, the leader of the attack, was forced to watch from the dugout as Lungi Ngidi and Keshav Maharaj performed the rescue act.
“I’m glad we won that game,” Rabada said after the West Indies victory, finally breaking his media silence. “Otherwise, I would have blamed myself for sure. On the positive side, I made it interesting but if we had lost, I would have taken it quite heavily, to be honest.”
His lesson was as blunt as a yorker: “Get behind the line. Simple as that.”
The tactical shift: Markram’s masterclass
The report from the West Indies clash reads like a statement of intent. Chasing 177 on a tacky Ahmedabad surface, Aiden Markram (82) and Quinton de Kock (47) dismantled the Windies’ bowling unit, reaching the target with 23 balls to spare.
But the victory was set up in the first over of the second innings. Markram, in a stroke of tactical genius, replaced the struggling Keshav Maharaj with Rabada after just six balls. Rabada responded with the vintage venom that has been missing for parts of the tournament, claiming the crucial wickets of Shimron Hetmyer and Shai Hope in his opening over.
“He’s been leading from the front, as he’s always done,” Markram said of his spearhead. “It doesn’t always reflect in the numbers but behind closed doors, he’s sharing a lot of information. He puts a lot of love into this team.”
While Rabada provided the early spark, the story of the tournament remains Lungi Ngidi. With 11 wickets to his name, Ngidi is level with Tabraiz Shamsi at the top of the charts. His secret weapon — a dipping, deceptive off-cutter — has left world-class batters looking like amateurs.
Rabada, ever the student of the game, admits he hasn’t cracked the code of his teammate’s signature ball. “It’s incredibly hard. Everyone’s asking him, ‘What do you do?’ and he says it’s simple but it’s difficult,” Rabada laughed. “For instance, no one can bowl that off-cutter like Lungs and no one can bowl the knuckleball like Plank [Marco Jansen]. It’s a network.”
The “network” has seen Rabada take a backseat in the wicket-taking columns (with four wickets in the tournament so far) but he is far from disgruntled. “When you think about it, more often than not, it goes for you. Unfortunately, now it hasn’t been but the most important thing is that we’ve been winning.”
The road ahead
As South Africa prepares for the semi-finals, they do so as the tournament’s most complete unit. They have won from 20/3 against India; they have survived double Super Overs against Afghanistan; and they have ruthlessly chased down big totals against the West Indies.
For Rabada, the personal stakes remain high. He is no longer just the “fastest man in the room”; he is the stabiliser. He is the man who has learnt that a hero’s journey sometimes requires sitting in the dugout while his best friend takes the glory.
“We’ve got a team that’s pretty experienced, mixed with a bunch of young players,” Rabada said, his eyes fixed on the knockout fixtures. “I guess it’s just about doing more of the same and hoping that it falls our way.”
Malawi’s new government drops corruption cases against senior officials:
Malawi’s government has ordered prosecutors to drop two major financial crime cases against 10 people, including sitting cabinet ministers and the country’s top fiscal officials, even as Lilongwe pursues a new programme with the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
The office of the director of public prosecutions discontinued criminal proceedings against former Reserve Bank of Malawi (RBM) governor Dalitso Kabambe, his deputy Henry Mathanga, former finance minister Joseph Mwanamvekha, secretary to the treasury Cliff Chiunda and cabinet minister Jean Mathanga, among others.
The two cases, which together named 10 accused, had been running for nearly five years and involved charges of abuse of office and breaches of procurement procedures at the centre of Malawi’s fiscal architecture. The discontinuance came just months after Mathanga was reinstated as deputy governor of the Reserve Bank and Cliff Chiunda confirmed as secretary to the treasury.
This also comes after Peter Mutharika of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) won Malawi’s September 2025 general election, defeating incumbent Lazarus Chakwera of the Malawi Congress Party (MCP). Mutharika’s return to the presidency ended five years of MCP rule, under which most of the criminal proceedings had been filed and prosecuted.
The accused were DPP-era officials. Kabambe had served as RBM governor during Mutharika’s previous presidency, while Mwanamvekha was finance minister. The prosecutions, launched between 2020 and 2023, were framed publicly as anti-corruption efforts but critics alleged they were also instruments of political marginalisation.
The individuals hold or have returned to senior state positions. The attorney general gave the instruction to discontinue the cases and the director of public prosecutions acted on it.
Court documents confirm the DPP admitted he sought guidance under the Constitution and was told by the attorney general to discontinue the cases. Under Malawi’s Constitution, the DPP is meant to exercise prosecutorial discretion independently. An instruction from the executive’s chief legal officer to drop high-profile cases is, in effect, executive intervention in criminal proceedings.
Asked about the grounds for withdrawal, ministry of justice spokesperson Frank Namangale said the DPP would furnish the reasons to parliament’s legal affairs committee. No substantive public justification has been offered.
Kabambe, Mathanga and Mwanamvekha were accused of misrepresentation of economic figures purportedly designed to make the IMF believe that the government was meeting the conditions of a $ 108 million extended credit facility.
Prosecutors said the alleged deception led the IMF to cancel the facility, depriving Malawi of budget support at a moment of acute fiscal stress.
Separately, Kabambe, Mathanga and Chiunda faced charges related to unauthorised expenditure and concealment of public funds amounting to $ 350m, linked to a loan facility from the African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank).
A third thread involved allegations that Kabambe and Mathanga had authorised transfers of 4.3 billion Malawian kwacha to FDH Bank on the eve of the 2020 presidential election result announcement. A forensic audit described it as a fraudulent transaction without RBM board approval.
The DPP’s discontinuance letters, dated 11 February, said the state reserved the right to revive the cases within six months if new and substantial evidence emerged and that bail conditions for all accused had been lifted.
The discontinuances come at a sensitive juncture for Malawi’s finances. Its extended credit facility programme, approved in November 2023, was terminated in May last year after no review was completed within the required 18 month.
The lapse froze the remaining $ 140m of a $ 175m package. The Mutharika government, which inherited that vacuum on taking office in late 2025, has indicated its intention to negotiate a new arrangement.
The IMF, for its part, has been explicit about what any new programme requires. Its July 2025 Article IV consultation statement stressed the need to advance the fight against corruption and underscored the importance of enhancing transparency, including by publishing a 2024 governance diagnostic assessment.
The discontinuance of prosecutions against individuals who allegedly manipulated economic data submitted to the IMF, and who now occupy the very offices that will negotiate a new programme, creates a credibility problem.
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