When people hear the term ‘top cop’ they think of responsible office bearers who will uphold the law.
Now former acting police commissioner, Khomotso Phahlane has been charged with fraud and corruption.
He was charged with 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) relating to two contracts valued at approximately R54 million.
The charges relate to October 2015, where university students embarked on the Fees Must Fall protests, with police dispatched to stabilise the violent unrest.
It is alleged that on 21 December 2016, the South African Police Service (SAPS) Crime Intelligence Division embarked on an emergency procurement of software tools or systems.
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“One of the softwares, RIPJAR, was intended to collect and monitor information from social media platforms on the instigators of the student protests,” the Pretoria Specialised Commercial Crime Court heard.
It however emerged that these “emergency” response measures came about in December 2016 when the protest had started in October 2015.
It is alleged that the accused attempted to purchase RIPJAR software from a company that was not involved in software engineering, but was a security alarms and surveillance cameras company.
“It further emerged that the owners of the competing companies were friends, who in fact and in truth were involved in cover quoting. The cover quoting 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.
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“Another mobile communication encryption software known as Daedalus, which was solely used for encrypting calls and wiping out cellphone records and messages, was procured through deviation from standard procurement processes, with the contract signed on the same day and payment made on December 22, a day after approval.”
The software was also used to encrypt voice calls made by SAPS management at the time when Khomotso was under investigation by IPID for the “Blue Lights” police tender and other irregular procurement at the time he was acting police commissioner.
The state was ordered to disclose an outstanding document to one defense attorney by 17 May and the matter was postponed to 3 July 2024 for disclosure and to be transferred to the Pretoria Regional Court.
