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Murdered in Worcester – ‘gangster informant’ who claimed Madonsela was target of hit

Murdered in Worcester – ‘gangster informant’ who claimed Madonsela was target of hit
Former SAPS Major General Jeremy Vearey. (Photo: Jaco Marais)
Caryn Dolley
By Caryn Dolley
14 Jan 2025
Facebook
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An ‘informant,’ who went by the name of Queeny Madikizela Malema has been murdered. Her past includes suspicions of rogue state activity, a claim that Jacob Zuma once freed her from jail, and involvement in apparent smear campaigns tied to Western Cape policing and politics.

‘I’m a big gangster, just with good make-up.” 

These were the words of Sylvano (also Seveno) Hendricks to this journalist when we met in May 2016.

hendricks Seveno (also Sylvano) Hendricks, who was murdered in the Western Cape on 13 January 2025. (Photo: Facebook)



At the time Hendricks, a transgender woman who adopted the moniker Queeny Madikizela Malema, was at the centre of a scandal that involved her warning the then public protector, Thuli Madonsela, that she was the target of a murder plot.

This journalist established, though, that Hendricks had a rather dubious past that involved phoning another former public protector, Lawrence Mushwana, and threatening him via a bomb scare when he was in office in 2005.

Hendricks was asked to explain that.

Read more: Getting away with murder – the curious case of Shai Avissar and Hazel Crane

She said she had been angry with Mushwana because he had dismissed information which she claimed could have prevented the 2003 murder of Gauteng socialite Hazel Crane, who had been a close friend of Winnie Madikizela-Mandela.

Hendricks later turned on this journalist, making false claims, an overall theme which trailed her for decades.

Bullets kill car passenger


When asked, on Tuesday, 14 January 2025, if Hendricks had been murdered in the Western Cape town of Worcester, provincial police spokesperson Captain Frederick van Wyk confirmed a shooting.

He did not provide the identities of those who were wounded, but said a 26-year-old survived and a 44-year-old was killed (this roughly corresponds with Hendricks’ age).

Van Wyk said officers were investigating a murder and attempted murder case after the shooting happened around 11pm on 13 January in front of a block of flats in Riverview, Worcester.

“According to reports the deceased and the victim were at the mentioned address to pick up someone with a grey BMW X3,” he said. 

“While they were sitting in the vehicle an unidentified person fired several shots to the person on the passenger side and the driver [wounded in the left shoulder] quickly drove off with the vehicle to a nearby hospital.”

By the time they arrived at the hospital, the passenger, understood to be Hendricks, had already died.

No arrests have been made.

Rogue state suspicions 


A flamboyant character, Hendricks seemed to ingratiate herself with police officers, politicians, government and high-profile figures – various Facebook profiles under her moniker are peppered with photographs indicating this. 

(There’s even a photograph of Hendricks with two men, one of whom appears to be Princess Diana’s brother, Earl Charles Spencer.)

hendricks spencer Seveno (also Sylvano) Hendricks, who used the name Queeny Madikizela Malema, poses with a man (left) who appears to be Princess Diana’s brother, Earl Charles Spencer. (Photo: Facebook)



Hendricks also claimed to have survived various attempts on her life, one that involved a drink spiked with poison, although some with knowledge of that incident said while it was indeed a case of alcohol poisoning, it simply involved the drinking of too much liquor.

Whatever the case, Hendricks had a vivid history of cropping up in police investigations and featuring in media articles – and of surfacing in strange political issues.

Those issues led to questions about who Hendricks may have worked for and if her “employers” – or handlers – could involve rogue state security agents.

Criminal record


Sections of this journalist’s book, To The Wolves: How Traitor Cops Crafted South Africa’s Underworld, refer to Hendricks.

It details how she was intermittently in jail from roughly 2002 to 2010 and how she featured in the 2006 findings of the Jali Commission, a state commission of inquiry that dealt with alleged corruption in the Correctional Services department.

Through the commission, it emerged Hendricks made accusations of criminality against department officials, but “there was no evidence to corroborate the allegations”.

In 2003, Hendricks had approached the Office of the Public Protector wanting to make certain allegations and be placed in witness protection, but the office felt that based on prior dealings with her, it did not want to pursue this.

A 2005 news article from the tabloid Die Son, which no longer appears to be available online, referred to a court case in which Hendricks was once accused.

According to that article, a police officer testified that Hendricks was highly intelligent and living a luxury lifestyle from the proceeds of crime.

It said Hendricks had been sentenced to 12 years in jail for lawbreaking including robbery and the false bomb threat directed at the public protector when Mushwana was in office.

Cop collusion vs smear 


Fast-forward to 2016.

Hendricks resurfaced through an affidavit relating to a murder in January of that year – Nathaniel Moses, who had headed a brutal faction of the 28s gang known as the Mobsters, was fatally shot in Strand.

Hendricks’ affidavit, under the name and spelling “Queenie,” said she had made a detailed statement about the Moses murder to three police officers stationed in Cape Town who were under then police officer Jeremy Vearey’s command.

Read more: Cops and Mobsters — the many murky claims of Western Cape police officers cosying up to gangsters

She had also claimed that Vearey had ties to Jerome “Donkie” Booysen, who subsequently became an accused in a murder case for which he is now on trial.

Booysen had, via a legal representative, distanced himself from Hendricks’ “malicious” claims.

Vearey later insisted the Hendricks’ allegations were part of a series of “fabrications facilitated by” former Western Cape community safety MEC Dan Plato. 

In an affidavit, Vearey had stated: “It appeared to me that the MEC’s office was conducting intelligence operations in which informants were being paid from public funds for information gathering… 

“I view the false statements as having been made by persons linked to gangs with a view of discrediting me.”

Plato denied orchestrating a smear campaign against Vearey.

Hendricks’ affidavit about the Moses murder, at the core of this specific saga, surfaced in April 2016.

Madonsela murder plot report


hendricks madonsela Former public protector Thuli Madonsela. (Photo: Gallo Images / Oupa Bopape)



The following month, the Sunday Times reported that Thuli Madonsela had been warned that a gang boss from Cape Town was planning to have her assassinated.

Madonsela was quoted in the Sunday Times as saying she was shocked and was taking the threat seriously.

The warning to her had stated: “Morning. Please be careful. A top gangster by the name of ... was paid to get hitmen to kill you. I will inform… MEC Dan Plato today about my information.”

It turned out that the warning was from Hendricks.

Read more: Playing the enemy: Understanding the ‘hit’ against Madonsela

hendricks madonsela Hendricks (right) and former public protector Thuli Madonsela, who Hendricks once claimed was the target of a murder plot. Hendricks was later accused of spreading disinformation. (Photo: Facebook)



When this journalist met Hendricks in May 2016 to discuss the Madonsela murder plot claims, and the threat previously made to Mushwana, Hendricks had arrived at the meeting point with several men she described as her bodyguards.

She had emphasised that she was an ANC member.

‘I know too much’


“There are people that want my downfall because I know too much,” Hendricks had said. 

“They aren’t even gangsters, it’s people in the ANC.”

Hendricks had also said she was politically connected and admitted to driving luxury vehicles.

It was when she was asked how she made her money that she replied: “I’m a big gangster, just with good make-up.”

Hendricks had passed on some alleged information about police collusion to Plato. This journalist also reported on that.

But Hendricks had expressed dissatisfaction with the reporting and in one of several WhatsApp messages to this journalist in 2016, had said: “Kyk wat ek doen.” (“Watch what I do.”)

hendricks dolley In August 2018 Hendricks made false claims against journalist Caryn Dolley on Facebook. (Image: Facebook)



Read more: Behind the headlines in an era of State Capture

This journalist flagged some other curious issues linked to the Madonsela murder plot saga in To the Wolves.

A section of the book says:

“It later emerged that the two Sunday Times reporters who had written the story about the claims of a planned hit on Madonsela – Mzilikazi wa Afrika and Stephan Hofstatter – were among journalists who were allegedly fed information as part of a suspected dirty [State Security Agency] plot to target [South African Revenue Service] officials who had been investigating [Jacob] Zuma and his allies. 

“It was believed that bogus stories had been planted with the journalists to tarnish the reputations of investigators and state officials unravelling looting within the state and the abuse of political power.”

This is part of what sparked informal suspicions that Hendricks was working with rogue elements within the state.

A few months after the Madonsela murder plot story broke, towards the end of 2016, Hendricks was jailed again for breaking previous parole conditions.

She was held in Cape Town’s Goodwood prison.

Zuma reference and journo arrest


In October 2017, Hendricks was released from custody about a year after being detained and a bizarre uncorroborated media report on that emerged.

It quoted Hendricks as claiming that Zuma, who was president of South Africa at the time, had visited her while she was in jail and had given the order for her to be freed (Zuma was not contacted for the purposes of that article to respond to the claim).

The article quoted Hendricks as saying: “Ek het net die oggend gehoor: ‘Meisie, sit vir jou make-up aan, jy is op pad huis toe. Die president het opdrag gegee’”. (“I just heard that morning: ‘Girl, put your makeup on, you’re on the way home. The president gave the instruction’.”)

While Hendricks was released from the cells, others linked to her faced the possibility of being placed inside them.

In early 2018, two suspects, including Janice Ohlson, a sub-editor for Die Son, were arrested and faced more than a hundred fraud charges for allegedly creating false work schedules for Hendricks.

Ohlson subsequently entered a plea sentencing agreement with the state.

In August 2018, a rather garbled Facebook post was made on a profile under the “Queeny” moniker that Hendricks appeared to run.

It falsely claimed that this journalist (although her name was spelt incorrectly – “Carrin Dolly”) was paid R48,000 to write something indicating that top police officers and other journalists were involved, and that “our new President’s security is… in trouble”.

Nothing came of that.

Charl Kinnear and Crime Intelligence


Meanwhile, another Hendricks-linked controversy extends to detective Charl Kinnear, who was murdered outside his Bishop Lavis home in Cape Town in September 2020.

It also again extends to Kinnear’s colleague, Jeremy Vearey.

jeremy vearey Former SAPS Major General Jeremy Vearey. (Photo: Jaco Marais)



By the time of his murder, Kinnear had already made it clear to bosses that he did not trust certain police officers attached to Crime Intelligence in the Western Cape.

Read more: Rogue cop unit in the Western Cape ‘exists’ and drove divisions in the province’s police – SAPS watchdog

In a letter of complaint to senior officers about how certain cops appeared intent on framing colleagues, Kinnear had said that in March 2018, he received information from an inmate at Goodwood prison, where Hendricks had been detained for roughly a year.

“The… inmate called me and informed me that he was visited by Crime Intelligence members … and others who wanted him to submit an affidavit relating to the possible theft of documents from the prisoner … file of Queenie Madikizela [sic] at Goodwood Prison,” Kinnear had written.

Kinnear said the inmate was told to allege that the “theft” or “defeating the ends of justice” from Hendricks’ prison file had been committed by Vearey and fellow police officer Peter Jacobs.

Read more: Crime Intelligence: Who is Major-General Peter Jacobs?

In March 2018, a criminal case into the claims was opened, but it was closed nine days later with no arrests, suggesting the matter had no substance.

Promotions, demotion, dismissal


That month, March 2018, Jacobs was appointed as the national head of Crime Intelligence.

The following month, Vearey was appointed as the Western Cape’s deputy commissioner of crime detection, a position he had previously been transferred from, a manoeuvre which he had legally challenged.

It appeared that the claims about Jacobs and Vearey stealing prison documents relating to Hendricks could have been intentionally planted to try to prevent their promotions.

Jacobs went on to be effectively demoted in March 2021 when he was moved as head of national Crime Intelligence and Vearey was controversially dismissed from the police service in May 2021 over Facebook posts.

Motive


While it is not yet clear what the motive for Hendricks’ murder was, it is clear that over several years, she cropped up in various sagas linked to policing, crime and politics in South Africa’s most gang-ravaged province, the Western Cape.

By her admission, she was politically connected and a gangster.

She appeared to be an information – and disinformation – peddler.

South Africa’s era of State Capture, with its foundations bolstered via smear campaigns and corruption, is proof of how dangerous intentionally planted disinformation can be.

Perhaps, like Hendricks herself once said, she knew “too much”. 

Or perhaps she just purported to.

While the motive for her murder may be unrelated to all of that, the fact remains that she was entangled in an unsettling overall saga that seems to point towards State Capture.

And it has left wild claims, derailed careers and crime suspicions – some that will now inevitably emanate from Hendricks’ own killing – in its wake. DM

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