An investigation into alleged police corruption in South Africa has had the nation captivated - much like the second season of a successful Netflix crime drama.
What could be regarded as the first season of this real-life inquiry into allegations made by a senior officer last July - that organised crime groups had infiltrated the police and government - ran from September to December. The revelations included details of an alleged drug cartel and named those at the heart of the alleged corruption.
The "second season" of this inquiry has just wrapped up - with another interim report on the proceedings handed over to President Cyril Ramaphosa on Friday.
Like the first interim report from the Madlanga Commission, it was not made public, though the contents are likely to be fairly explosive - if the public hearings are anything to go by.
Before the third and final phase gets under way next month - aka "season three" - here are some eye-catching moments from the last 64 days of hearings that saw 32 witnesses testifying.
In February, senior police officer Brig Rachel Matjeng appeared before the commission, which is named after retired Constitutional Court Justice Mbuyiseli Madlanga who is heading the inquiry.
She was there as she had overseen a tender awarded in 2024 to controversial businessman Vusimuzi "Cat" Matlala's company Medicare24 Tshwane District, which was meant to provide health services to the police.
The contract was cancelled a year later and since then a dozen senior police officers, including Matjeng, have been formally charged over their role in awarding the contract. None of them have yet been asked to plead in court.
In her testimony to the commission, Matjeng denied receiving kickbacks from Matlala - and instead alleged that the pair were in an on-off romantic relationship that lasted until his arrest last year and that he had lavished her with gifts.
One of these presents were shots of the weight-loss drug Ozempic, which she had asked her "boyfriend" to source for her.
Matjeng said she had not been bribed with a Brazilian butt lift (BBL), as had been alleged online, telling the commission: "So, for me, from my boyfriend [Matlala], I only ask for Ozempic, unlike those that ask for BBL (sic)".
Matlala himself has yet to appear before the commission.
He was named in testimony last year from the police crime intelligence boss as one of the main figures in an alleged drug-trafficking and crime cartel, known as the Big Five, that allegedly also carried out contract killings, cross-border hijackings and kidnappings.
Matlala is currently in custody facing 25 criminal charges, among them attempted murder. He has denied all the charges against him.
It is believed that he will make a much-anticipated appearance - to respond to allegations made against him - during the final leg of the commission's hearings.
Another key focus of the Madlanga Commission has been the handling of two major drug operations that occurred just a month apart in 2021.
One was in the south of the port city of Durban in June that year and another occurred in Johannesburg a month later.
In the first, police intercepted 541kg of cocaine, hidden in a shipping container carrying animal bone meal, worth more than 200m rand ($12m; £9m). Five months later the confiscated drugs were stolen from a poorly secured building owned by the police's elite unit, the Hawks, in what was believed to be an inside job.
Senior Hawks official Maj-Gen Hendrik Flynn detailed to the inquiry a series of missteps by officers in the lead-up to the theft.
These included a failure to collect DNA or fingerprint samples from the scene and the decision to store the drugs at a building that lacked proper security despite the availability of safer ones closer to police locations.
"I am of the view that it is no coincidence and that the sequence of events is indeed... by design," Flynn said.
Another senior Hawks official, Lt Col Nkoana Sebola, told the commission that circumstances around the second seizure - 700kg of cocaine worth an estimated $17.3m - from a warehouse in an industrial suburb in southern Johannesburg in July 2021 were also suspicious.
The drugs had been hidden inside black bags among lorry parts being imported for a well-known transport company. The container had also come in via Durban's harbour.
Sebola said he believed the first officers on the scene were carrying out a heist as they were working outside their jurisdiction.
One of them, Marumo Magane, an office-bound analytics officer with no experience in investigative work or handling drug busts, told the commission that he had been called to assist at the scene by a senior traffic officer - who was also unqualified to handle drug busts but said he had received a tip-off.
The commission heard how both officials entered the premises of a logistics company in the east of Johannesburg without a search warrant.
Accompanied by an alleged informant, Magane said they asked an employee to open the container so they could "verify the information".
But they were told to wait until the container was delivered to its final destination in southern Johannesburg, where Magane then ordered the bags of drugs be unloaded on to the back of his lorry.
Suspicious staff at that warehouse called the local police and later the Hawks investigating officer arrived on the scene.
Magane, who did not call in the police unit responsible for processing crime scenes, repeated during his testimony that he had no intention of stealing the drugs. The traffic officer is yet to appear before the commission.
But Magane did admit to a series of blunders in his handling of the scene, including tampering with exhibits and evidence and loading the drugs on to his police-issued vehicle.
Madlanga put it to Magane: "You were clueless, and you knew that you were clueless."
The hapless analytics officer replied: "That is correct, commissioner."
He and several others were arrested for their role in the botched operation, but the charges were dropped in 2022 as prosecutors saw "no prospects of success".
The inquiry also heard how the confiscated haul was taken to a forensic science laboratory to be stored and where it was discovered in February 2025 that 136kg of the cocaine had disappeared.
Alleged police informant and political fixer Oupa "Brown" Mogotsi first appeared before the inquiry in November as he is alleged to be one of the central figures who facilitated the infiltration of the police force by corrupt individuals. He denies the allegations.
Beforehand, Mogotsi, a businessman and former member of the African National Congress (ANC) party, said he had survived an assassination attempt.
"I ran for my life," he told the commission during his first appearance, saying his car had come under fire in an area east of Johannesburg. Police opened an investigation into the case and seized the vehicle.
During his November testimony he went on to make dramatic claims, which he later retracted, that Gen Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi - the police whistleblower whose explosive allegations led to President Ramaphosa setting up the Madlanga Commission - and the Zulu king were CIA spies.
The businessman was due to return to the commission in March, but this was postponed after saying he was too ill to appear.
Justice Madlanga stated that his sick note was "useless" and Mogotsi reluctantly returned for cross-examination in May.
However, he first tried to get Matthew Chaskalson, the lawyer responsible for presenting evidence to the commission, removed for perceived bias, saying he was trying to get him to implicate another witness.
When his bid was dismissed, Mogotsi was clearly furious and refused to answer many of the questions put to him over fears he might incriminate himself.
In an ironic twist of fate, shortly after giving his testimony he was arrested by a dedicated police unit set up earlier this year to investigate referrals and evidence arising from the inquiry.
Known as the Commission's Recommendations Task Team (CRTT), it has been responsible for five high-profile arrests over the last few months, though many of them have not been directly related to evidence from the inquiry.
Mogotsi appeared in court accused of faking the attempt on his life. Despite vehement denials that he staged the hit, he faces a litany of charges related to the incident - and is currently applying for bail.
The final Madlanga Commission report is due in August - and that one is expected to be made public.
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Source: BBC News - World
