Pretoria - Former acting national police commissioner Khomotso Phahlane said he has been singled out and prosecuted merely for signing on procurement documents as the then accounting officer of the South African Police Service (SAPS).
In a wide-ranging interview with Newzroom Afrika, Phahlane said he had been singled out in the so-called lifestyle audit.
“I was investigated by an Ipid member who is an assistant director. An assistant director is way below my level, way below my wife’s level. He owned a farm. He owned a guesthouse. He owned properties in an estate. He is an assistant director. That information is known by the same Ipid people,” Phahlane spoke to Newzroom Afrika.
“Have they ever bothered asking, what is going on here? I was informed that the plot where the guesthouse was, was bought for R3.8 million. Why is the same person investigating me? He investigates me for a music system.
“When he came to my office, I said bhuti, you are barking up the wrong tree, here is proof of payment. It was not cash but an instruction from my bank to say I am buying such and such.”
Phahlane said since 2017, when he was asked to step aside, he gladly accepted because he has nothing to hide, and the charges preferred against him initially are crumbling.
“Unfortunately, all those allegations that made me to step aside are today, not before court. If you recall, I was accused of having been bought a music system worth R80 000. The second charge was that I was bought vehicles, the third (charge) was about my house, which is being flighted all over the place, on TV screens and in the print media,” said Phahlane.
“All those three cases are nowhere before court. While I was at home, I was visited by the allegations of the blue lights, which is a transaction that took place between the Gauteng province and the Division: Supply Chain Management (of SAPS) which happens to be at national. I have no role to play in that regard.”
Last week, Phahlane and his five co-accused appeared before the Pretoria Specialised Commercial Crimes Court, where their matter was postponed to March 10, 2023.
Phahlane and Lieutenant-Colonel Godfrey Mahwayi, Major-General Maanda Obert Nemutandzhela, Major-General Mankosana Agnes Makhele and businessmen Inbanathan Kistiah and Avendra Naidoo are facing charges of fraud, corruption, theft and contravention of the Public Finance Management Act (PFMA) pertaining to two police tenders to a tune of R54 million issued in 2016.”
Investigating Directorate spokesperson Sindisiwe Seboka said on December 21, 2016, the SAPS Crime Intelligence Division embarked on emergency procurement of software tools or systems.
One of the software, RIPJAR, was intended to collect and monitor information from social media platforms on the instigators of the university students’ #FeesMustFall protests.
However, it was revealed that these “emergency” response measures to #FeesMustFall came about in December 2016 when the protests had started in October 2015.
Furthermore, they allegedly tried to buy the RIPJAR software from a company that was not involved in software engineering but was a security alarm and surveillance cameras company.
“The owners of the so-called competing companies were friends, who in fact and in truth, were involved in cover quoting. The cover quote was supplied to Inbanathan Kistiah by the former husband of the sole director of a company called Perfect Source, which was a human resource recruitment company,” said Seboka.
The other software procured was a mobile communication encryption platform named Daedalus, which was solely used for encrypting calls and wiping out cellular records and messages and was allegedly obtained by deviation from normal procurement processes for the contracts (signed and processed on the same day) and payment was made on December 22, a day after approval.
The Daedalus software was the same software that was allegedly used to encrypt voice calls made by SAPS management at the time when Phahlane was under investigation by Ipid.
“The purpose of Daedalus was to encrypt voice calls made by management of the SAPS at the time when Phahlane was under investigation by Ipid. He was being investigated for the ‘Blue Lights’ police tender and other irregular procurement that happened during his tenure. Daedalus made it impossible for investigators to get call records from cellphone providers,” Seboka said.
The accused were released on bail of R5 000, R10 000, R50 000, and three of the accused were released on R20 000 bail each.
IOL