Who is SAPS General Feroz Khan’s wife?

South Africans have seen another top cop thrust into the spotlight in the ongoing drama around the country’s police service. On Sunday, 10 May 2026, the Political Killings Task Team raided Major-General Feroz Khan’s apartment in Houghton, Johannesburg and arrested the South African Police Service (SAPS) Crime Intelligence boss.

Along with two others, he faces charges linked to alleged illegal possession of unwrought gold and allegedly obstructing justice. But his name has surfaced repeatedly in the country’s explosive SAPS crisis, with National Commissioner Fannie Masemola suspended and the Madlanga Commission probing claims that organised crime networks infiltrated Crime Intelligence itself.

He’s known for his lavish lifestyle, which features private businesses, flashy cars, and homes. Now, South Africans are asking who his wife could be. News outlets have previously reported that Khan co-owns several investment properties with his wife, but have withheld her name.

Feroz Khan’s wife and their investment properties

The Daily Maverick reported in 2021 that Khan, “together with his wife, he owns several upmarket properties, one of which he has been accused of renting to Crime Intelligence”. In 2017, News24 reported that Khan then owned three properties worth more than R13m in Johannesburg’s affluent suburbs of Houghton and Bruma, adding that “Khan, who co-owns the homes with his wife, allegedly leased the Bruma house to crime intelligence for use as a safe house.”

However, the publication also withheld her name.

But as Khan burst into the spotlight in South Africa afresh after his arrest last week, another public figure started making the rounds.

Online sleuths dug up photos of Khan pictured repeatedly with international makeup artist and social media influencer Maya Mia, aka Maya Janeska. Originally from Macedonia, she lived in South Africa, where she hobnobbed with high-profile business people and politicians. She was found dead in late 2022 with a gunshot to the head, which appeared to be death by suicide, which relatives said they found suspicious.

Her Instagram profile is still public, where she documents her luxury lifestyle, travels, and social circles, and several images feature Khan.

The woman people are mistaking for Feroz Khan’s wife

But she refers to him as her “friend” in a post from May 2022, just months before her death.

Janeska, who had more than 1.2 million Instagram followers and connections to South African political and celebrity circles, was dating cigarette businessman Kyle Phillips, a director at Carnilinx and the man who once loaned EFF leader Julius Malema money to settle a tax bill. According to reports, Phillips was allegedly in the house when she died and rushed to the room after hearing the gunshot.

Friends and relatives insisted in interviews with News24 following her death in December 2022 that Janeska did not appear suicidal. One friend described her as ambitious, upbeat and deeply involved in diplomatic and business projects between South Africa and North Macedonia. Her social media painted the image of someone building a glamorous international career, moving from beauty influencing into business, mining and tobacco circles. At the same time, relatives claimed she had previously expressed fears for her safety linked to people around her boyfriend.

But as to who Khan’s wife actually is, that remains a mystery.

Who is Feroz Khan, and what is he accused of?

Khan himself is a career intelligence officer who joined SAPS in 1991, climbing rapidly through the covert policing ranks, eventually becoming deputy head of Crime Intelligence after years running undercover and operational intelligence units.

He has been tied to several previous controversies. He was implicated in allegations linked to a R700 million cocaine seizure in 2021, amid claims that officers siphoned off part of the drugs haul, though he was later cleared in an internal disciplinary process. In separate testimony before the Madlanga Commission, witnesses accused him of soliciting money from murder-accused businessman Vusimuzi “Cat” Matlala, allegations Khan denies and which remain unresolved. Lieutenant-General Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi has meanwhile described Khan as a “political fixer” operating a “dirty” office within Crime Intelligence.

The current criminal case centres on an incident at OR Tambo International Airport on 5 May 2021, when customs officials allegedly stopped Downes carrying nearly 76g of unwrought gold. Prosecutors say Downes claimed that he was working undercover under Khan’s authority, a claim Khan allegedly corroborated by phone. Kadwa is accused of later directing officers to open only an “enquiry” rather than a criminal case, after which the matter quietly disappeared. The docket reportedly resurfaced after testimony at the Madlanga Commission revived several dormant SAPS investigations. Parliament had previously heard allegations involving Khan during hearings into SAPS corruption, but stopped short of calling him to testify, a decision critics said left major questions unanswered. Those questions may now instead play out in court.

Feroz Khan’s wife remains a mystery… for now.

In a scandal packed with intelligence bosses, luxury properties, alleged gold smuggling and shadowy police politics, Khan’s wife has remained almost entirely out of public view. And while the internet has tried to connect dots between Khan, Maya Janeska and South Africa’s wider Crime Intelligence drama, there is still no public evidence linking Janeska to him romantically. What is clear is that Khan’s arrest has reopened scrutiny not just of one police boss, but of the murky world of wealth, power and secrecy surrounding SAPS Crime Intelligence itself.