The Durban High Court has dismissed businessman Calvin Mathibeli’s urgent application to stop a planned firearms compliance inspection by the South African Police Service, clearing the way for authorities to proceed under Operation Buyisa.
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The Durban High Court has dismissed businessman Calvin Mathibeli’s urgent application to interdict the South African Police Service (SAPS) from conducting a firearms compliance inspection at his company premises, Calvin and Family Security Services, in Durban North.
The ruling was handed down on March 17 during a sitting in KwaZulu-Natal.
The application followed SAPS notifying Mathibeli on March 11, 2026, of a scheduled compliance inspection set for March 19 under the banner of Operation Buyisa.
“The court found that Mr Mathibeli’s application lacked urgency and dismissed it with costs. He was ordered to pay legal costs to SAPS,” police spokesperson Lieutenant Colonel Vincent Mukhathi said.
Mukhathi added that, on March 19, members of Operation Buyisa would proceed with the planned inspection at the company’s premises, as mandated by the Constitution and in terms of Section 109 of the Firearms Control Act 60 of 2000.
Nationwide, Operation Buyisa is a SAPS initiative aimed at removing illegal firearms from circulation and preventing non-compliance by security companies and firearms dealers.
“As part of SAPS’s priority to curb the proliferation of firearms in the country, members of Operation Buyisa continue to conduct operations across multiple provinces to track down and confiscate firearms from security companies operating outside the ambit of the law, including illegal firearms,” Mukhathi said.
He added that members were also conducting firearms compliance inspections nationwide to ensure that security companies, dealers and individuals comply with firearm regulations.
“In combating gun-related violence, SAPS is intensifying efforts against the proliferation of firearms by conducting licence and compliance inspections at security companies holding firearms,” he said.
Meanwhile, IOL News reported that Mathibeli has doubled down on allegations against KwaZulu-Natal’s provincial police commissioner, Lieutenant General Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi, accusing him of bullying and alleging a plot to have him assassinated.
The claims follow a raid carried out by SAPS at Mathibeli’s business premises and come amid emerging allegations linked to the Madlanga Commission.
In a previous interview with broadcaster Newzroom Afrika, Mathibeli alleged that law enforcement officers arrived at his home heavily armed.
“They found my sister. They said they had come to arrest me and that they had a warrant. She tried to call me, but I didn’t take the call,” he said.
“That’s because, 10 minutes earlier, I had received a call from a reliable source warning me that police were coming to assassinate me under the pretext that I had failed to cooperate.”
He further claimed that such actions were a known modus operandi of police in KwaZulu-Natal and alleged that officers were acting under instructions from rival security companies.
“He (Mkhwanazi) does not only work with the private security sector; he is working with taxi operators who have been targeting me,” Mathibeli said.
“There have been numerous hits placed on me. Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi is a bully - I have said that for years.”
Mathibeli also alleged that some of his clients had been victims of Mkhwanazi’s actions.
“Mkhwanazi is able to issue instructions to kill people. In some operations, they secure mortuaries beforehand because they plan to kill,” he claimed.
Responding to the allegations, KwaZulu-Natal police spokesperson Colonel Robert Netshiunda said the raid was a head office operation and not conducted by provincial police.
“Mr Mathibeli appears to have an obsession with police in KwaZulu-Natal, particularly the provincial commissioner,” Netshiunda said.
“Now that he has brought himself to the attention of the police in KwaZulu-Natal, his statements effectively invite scrutiny into his business dealings.”
Netshiunda added that police had learned Mathibeli was a beneficiary of a Gauteng Department of Health tender and that investigations would follow.
“We thank him for the voluntary invitation to examine his business operations,” he said.
IOL News