O’Sullivan sues Mkhwanazi for R10 million
Forensic investigator Paul O’Sullivan has hit back at KwaZulu-Natal Police Commissioner Lieutenant General Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi with a R10-million defamation countersuit.
The high-profile clash follows Mkhwanazi’s own R5-million lawsuit accusing O’Sullivan of damaging his reputation with allegations of corruption. O’Sullivan’s legal team, Ulrich Roux & Associates, filed the counterclaim on October 10, demanding that Mkhwanazi retract his remarks made at the Madlanga Commission of Inquiry and in the Ad Hoc Committee or face a full damages payout.
The dispute stems from explosive testimony before the Madlanga Commission, chaired by Justice Retired Deputy Chief Justice Mbuyiseli Madlanga, which is probing criminality, political interference, and corruption within South Africa’s policing structures.
Mkhwanazi, who testified last month, alleged that O’Sullivan operated as a “foreign agent” linked to intelligence networks such as MI6, Mossad, and the CIA, and that he worked closely with former IPID head Robert McBride to influence police investigations.
O’Sullivan the founder of Forensics for Justice has dismissed the claims as “wild fabrications” designed to silence whistleblowers and derail his upcoming testimony before the same commission. He argues that Mkhwanazi’s statements have inflicted “severe reputational and financial harm.”
Among the remarks cited as defamatory are Mkhwanazi’s September 19 claim that O’Sullivan was implicated in an unspecified crime in KwaZulu-Natal, and his October 8 call in the Ad Hoc Committee for citizens to “take drastic action” if the government failed to rein in O’Sullivan’s supposed influence over policing.
O’Sullivan says the fallout has gone beyond the courtroom.
“I’m now receiving threats… That’s the result of a senior police official telling Parliament that the country should take drastic action against me,” he told BizNews. “That’s not how a democracy works.”
The case has become one of the most closely watched sagas, exposing deep divisions at the top of South Africa’s law enforcement agencies as the inquiry digs deeper into allegations of corruption and abuse of power.