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A Northern Cape man tried to convince the Kimberley High Court that the South African Police Service (Saps) should cough up R2 million for blowing his cover, but the judge wasn’t buying it.
Mr KM (no surname) was the sole eyewitness to his boss’s murder in Kuruman on 1 June 2025. Understandably, he expected the cops to treat his info like state secrets. Instead, he found his full details — name, crime scene address, and his own address — floating around on a WhatsApp group like a birthday invite.
And yes, the leaked internal police comms didn’t stay on WhatsApp. They quickly made the rounds on social media, too.
A few days later, a suspected gangster was gunned down in a similar fashion to KM’s boss, and just like that, KM was no longer just traumatised; he was terrified.
He allegedly confronted both junior and senior officers about the leak, The Citizen reports. Cue the shocked Pikachu faces, but not a single step was taken to protect him or trace the source of the breach.
Shaken and stirred, KM was booked off sick for a week and fled to a nearby town. But his paranoia followed. He claimed the police already knew his new location, and he didn’t trust them not to broadcast it again.
So, he sued.
He wanted a court order declaring the state’s actions unlawful, unconstitutional, and straight-up dangerous. He demanded R2 million – not as a jackpot, but to fund a fresh start: relocation, rent, security, and everything else he’d need to live in peace without being dumped in the Witness Protection Programme. Because, according to him, trusting the state was off the table.
He even asked for all communication about the murder case to happen strictly via Zoom or Teams. No visits, no check-ins — just virtual vibes.
Saps denied everything. They claimed they never leaked anything and, in a cheeky twist, questioned how KM even got that internal police message.
They reminded him that Witness Protection is actually run by the National Prosecuting Authority, not them, and that while his fears may be dramatic, they weren’t necessarily rooted in reality.
Oh, and just for the record: KM admitted that the police hadn’t threatened him in any way.
On Friday, Judge Cecile Williams sided with Saps, saying that the applicant’s fear, while “real,” wasn’t backed by enough solid proof to grant such “extraordinary relief.”
“The applicant’s fear is real, but there is no real basis laid for the relief claimed,” she ruled, effectively telling KM: you may be scared, but that doesn’t mean someone owes you two million bucks.
Case closed, and the state’s wallet stays zipped.
[Source: Citizen]
