The swoop by the NPA on former national commissioner Kgomotso Phahlane and other generals in SAPS Crime Intelligence is bound to stir up a vipers’ nest.
Whatever the outcome, it will bring a denouement to four years of political infighting, criminality and gross mismanagement, particularly with regard to personal protective equipment procurement by the SA Police Service.
Between 31 May and 21 June, crucial months in the lead-up to the “attempted insurrection” that tore through KZN and Gauteng after the 8 July incarceration of former president Jacob Zuma, Lieutenant-General Yolisa Mokgabudi, the head of the crucial SAPS Crime Intelligence (CI) Division, was absent from her post.
It is not as if Mokgabudi was oblivious to the festering hotbed of factionalism she was being parachuted into by National Commissioner Khehla Sitole back in February 2021.
Lieutenant-General Yolisa Mokgabudi. (Photo: Suné Payne)
It was, crucially, an appointment that did not please Police Minister Bheki Cele, who had been patrolling Sitole’s operational domain for some time with regard to appointments and other matters.
In a nutshell:
The beleaguered SAPS Crime Intelligence, after being alerted by a “minister in the security cluster”, uncovered a threat of “some magnitude” to the country’s “national security” just prior to the ANC’s 2017 elective conference at Nasrec.
Another Zuma-dominated security actor, the State Security Agency (SSA), on the other hand, did a sweep and found no immediate threats and continued to monitor the conference until its conclusion on 19 December, with no major threats detected.
These were two parallel security universes, one empty and other full of smoke, mirrors, electromagnetic blankets and the R45-million “Nasrec grabber solution”.
First, a labour court matter involving suspended Crime Intelligence head Peter Jacobs was postponed on Wednesday, 3 March, because police bosses were not ready to proceed.
Then, Sitole and other top SAPS officials lost their bid to appeal a 13 January High Court ruling by Judge Norman Davis ordering the declassification of documents in the R45-million “Nasrec grabber” saga.
“Rather than comply with their statutory duties as police officers willing to contribute to the investigation of crimes, they sought legal assistance and on this basis thwarted Ipid’s [Independent Police Investigative Directorate] investigation,” Davis said in dismissing the appeal.
The appeal was lodged by Sitole and fellow officers Lieutenant-General Francinah Vuma, Divisional Commissioner: Financial Management and Administration, and Lieutenant-General Lebeona Tsumane, Deputy National Commissioner: Crime Detection. Joining them as a fourth applicant is former minister of police Fikile Mbalula’s adviser Bo Mbindwane.
weekly newspaper.
A massive battle between the country’s top police officers is boiling over. In the midst of this, cops are trying to tackle crime, some of which is furthered by their own colleagues, leaving ordinary people exceptionally vulnerable.
Crime Intelligence officers are critical: they are meant to form an impenetrable barrier between the law-abiding residents of South Africa and local and global crooks.
But what happens if these officers abuse their positions and, instead of seeing to it that criminals are caught, join their ranks?
Well, suspicions and accusations in this realm are playing out. Yet again.
South Africa’s Crime Intelligence head, Peter Jacobs, has been suspended – according to him unfairly – for roughly three months. His suspension may be lifted on Wednesday.
Writing to Sitole on 12 February 2021, Minister of Police Bheki Cele noted that in light of a scathing judgment by the Pretoria High Court on 13 January 2021, communication had been received “from the Presidency” with regard to the matter.
“In respect of the recent High Court judgment in the matter between Vuma [Lieutenant-General Francinah Vuma] and others v IPID [the Independent Police Investigative Directorate], I have been requested by the Honourable President to respond to certain issues in respect of the judgment,” wrote Cele.
Cele said he had not, “to date” been briefed by the SAPS management on the outcome and the implications of the judgment for the SAPS.
First published in the Daily Maverick 168 weekly newspaper.
Documents in a court action have revealed how SAPS Crime Intelligence attempted to have R45-million released from the Secret Service Account (SSA) in 2017 to deal with a “possible national security threat” of some “magnitude” before the ANC’s highly charged elective conference at Nasrec in Johannesburg in 2017.
Lieutenant General Francinah Vuma, divisional commissioner: financial management and administration, in an affidavit to the South Gauteng High Court, set out how that December a “minister in the security cluster” had alerted then president Jacob Zuma of the alleged imminent force majeure.
The nature of this threat, which warranted the secret and emergency procurement of a listening device – known as a grabber – at the outrageously inflated price of R45-million, has not yet been disclosed or determined.