Madlanga Commission — daily vlog brief for Friday 21 August 2026. The short version for people who cannot sit through six hours of live feed.
From the day
SA NEWS HIGHLIGHTS — FRIDAY 21 AUGUST 2026
TOP HEADLINES – Madlanga Commission Day 164: witness claims Major Gen Dondo FAILED a polygraph test — new testimony shakes the IDAC probe (SABC live). – “Someone took information from my affidavit” — commission witness says pages vanished from his Section 27 statement, a mystery that lands back in Pietermaritzburg (SABC live). – Commission asks why a witness could travel to Cape Town and a shopping complex, but not hand over financial records — records fight continues (SABC live). – IDAC vs Commission: emails show IDAC staff hunting for a missing Section 27 affidavit in October last year — and the fight-back allegations against a major general (SABC live).
MADLANGA / JUSTICE & ACCOUNTABILITY – Day 164 polygraph bombshell: “Major Gen Dondo failed the polygraph test” — the words witnesses say were given to investigators, now aired at the Commission (SABC live). – Political killings task team scrutiny: allegations of vehicle procurement, excessive “laundry” budgets and secret-service account use resurface in testimony (SABC live). – “I don’t know how. Someone has taken out information that I wanted in here. Information that landed me in Pietermaritzburg prison.” — affidavit tampering claim (SABC live). – Section 27 case-number fight: counsel presses a witness over which affidavit belongs to which case file (SABC live).
WHY IT MATTERS Day 164 was a live-wire session: polygraph claims against a sitting major general, a missing-affidavit mystery, and fresh scrutiny of the political killings task team’s spending. The Commission keeps pulling the threads that the criminal-justice system couldn’t — and the cross-fire with IDAC shows the accountability fight is far from over.
Watch the cuts
The same day, cut into watchable clips across our three channels:
- Madlanga Today — timeline / what happened: channel
- PoliPulse — legal / process / context: channel
- Mzansi Pulse — street / how people feel: channel
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