Former SAPS head Kgomotso Phahlane and several Crime Intelligence big fish arrested over R54-million tender fraud

Considering the number of matters investigated by the Independent Police Investigative Directorate (and now the ID) with regard to the SAPS Crime Intelligence (CI) division over at least a decade, more arrests can be expected, with a paper trail leading to former police minister Fikile Mbalula.

The ID confirmed this week that two serving SAPS major-generals and a former lieutenant-general were among those arrested in connection with a 2016 police tender of more than R54-million, aimed at encrypting phone calls and spying on citizens on social media during the #FeesMustFall protests.

The suspects will appear in the Pretoria Commercial Crimes Court on Wednesday, 21 September and while ID spokesperson Sindisiwe Seboka confirmed the arrests, the accused were not named.

However, Daily Maverick can confirm that those taken into custody are:

• Former national commissioner Kgomotso Phahlane;


• The acting head of the CI secret fund, Major-General Obed Nemutanzhela;


• The CI information and technology head, Colonel Godfrey Mahwayi; and


• The Free State CI head, Major-General Agnes Makhele.

Also arrested were Durban businessmen Inbanathan Kistiah — whose company, I-View was a key focus of several Independent Police Investigative Directorate (Ipid) investigations —  as well as Avendra Naidoo, director of a company which colluded with Kistiah. They are all expected to apply for bail.

Kistiah is also being investigated for another matter involving CI’s attempted fraudulent R45-million procurement of a “grabber” or listening device prior to the ANC’s elective conference at Nasrec in 2017.

This was the thwarted shakedown that eventually cost former national police commissioner Khehla Sitole his job. Sitole, as a parting shot, named Mbalula as the mastermind behind the procurement attempt.

In the final volume of the State Capture report, Chief Justice Raymond  Zondo noted that evidence with regard to the Nasrec grabber procurement had confirmed that South Africa’s intelligence services had become involved in political party activities and factional battles within the ANC.

All these activities, Zondo noted, “were illegal and against their constitutional mandates”.

In 2021, in a scathing high court judgment, Judge Norman Davis ordered the declassification of documents Sitole had fought to keep secret from Ipid investigators for more than three years.

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Spying on citizens

The arrests this week relate to a procurement by CI from I-View which took place between 20 December 2016 and March 2017. In this instance, CI had supposedly forked out R33-million to I-View for software aimed at monitoring #FeesMustFall social media platforms.

While the amount was paid, Ipid could, however, find no evidence that the goods or services had in fact been rendered. Investigators found no evidence that the Ripjar software had even been installed on the SAPS Crime Intelligence systems.

Another system, Daedalus, which cost R21-million, was also procured from I-View by CI. This was to encrypt phone calls. At the time, Phahlane was under investigation in a “blue lights” matter and was seeking to have his phone calls scrambled.

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That services were not rendered for goods paid in these CI procurements from the secret fund suggests it was intended for other purposes.

In fact, President Cyril Ramaphosa himself, in a leaked voice clip from an ANC National Executive Committee meeting, acknowledged he was aware the governing party had stolen public funds to finance factional battles.

In January 2022, Parliament’s Standing Committee on Public Accounts (Scopa) and then still working Public Protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane confirmed the audio recording was being investigated.

What Ramaphosa said

In the recording, Ramaphosa can be heard commenting:

“Investigations will reveal that a lot of money, of public money, was used, and I said in this case, I am prepared to fall on the sword. So that the CR17 campaign yes, should be the only one that’s looked at.

“And not the others, because the image of the African National Congress is what I am most concerned about. Each one of us knows that quite a bit of money that is used in campaigns, in busing people around, in doing all manner of things, is often from state resources and public resources. And we cannot kid ourselves when it comes to that.

“One of the officials said, as these people from the State Security were testifying, one of the officials said, soon they will be revealing how the money from the SSA [State Security Agency] was used for some campaigning. And I said heaven forbid, I would rather, they say yes, you got money from this businessman for CR17, than for the public to finally hear that their money, public money, was used to advance certain campaigns. So comrade Tony, and all comrades, on this, this need for transparency, I’m all for it.

“And you will recall, comrades, I was the first one to say, we need to develop guidelines on how we run campaigns. I was the first one. And I will say, comrade Tony, you are absolutely right, that rule, that decision that was taken, I think it was at the Polokwane conference, no it was at the Mangaung conference, where we say now to determine how money should not…”

As veteran political journalist Stephen Grootes, writing in Daily Maverick noted: “There is an unprecedented and slightly startling aspect to the decisions both by Scopa and the Public Protector’s office to investigate this audio clip: it is that they are both saying they want to investigate what Ramaphosa said, not what he has done.”

Too close for comfort

Several top CI members, some closely associated with former president Jacob Zuma, are also bound to be in the ID’s sights.

This includes Brigadier Bhoyi Ngcobo, who has been fingered by several witnesses for pushing for procurement in the I-View Nasrec grabber matter.

With regard to Ripjar, Ipid investigators found that the procurement had been driven by Colonel Godfrey Mahwayi, the CI information and technology head.

In two days and after two quotations, R33-million had plopped into Kistiah’s account, sans a contract, thanks to Mahwayi.

Business associate Avendra Naidoo is alleged to have colluded with Kistiah to provide one of two quotes he sourced and that sealed the deal.

Other high-ranking SAPS members, including Deputy National Commissioner Francinah Vuma and the Deputy National Commissioner of Crime Detection, Lieutenant-General Lebeona Tsumane, were found guilty with Sitole of attempting to thwart Ipid investigators.

Read more in Daily Maverick: End of the legal runway for Khehla Sitole and his top officers as Supreme Court of Appeal sides with suspension

Vuma subsequently made a “protected disclosure” claiming her life had been threatened and that National Police Commissioner Fannie Masemola had been pushing for her suspension.

Before this, Vuma had, in September 2021 and just before a notice of intention to suspend was dispatched by Ramaphosa to Sitole, circulated a note declaring all top SAPS posts as “vacant”.

Vuma also transferred the chief SAPS auditor, Major-General DT Nkosi — who had uncovered that the SAPS had blown a spectacular R1.6-billion in irregular expenditure from March to August 2020 — to a lesser position as head of “auxiliary services and security”.

So far, at least 30 SAPS officials, many of them high ranking, have been arrested and charged in corruption-related matters.

In June, a serving brigadier was one of eight suspects arrested in connection with irregular contracts in the national commissioner corporate service department. Brigadier Stephina Mahlangu and seven co-accused were released on R3,000 bail each after a brief appearance in the Pretoria Magistrates’ Court on charges of fraud, forgery and theft. The charges emanate from four irregular contracts worth more than R960,000 awarded between 2014 and 2017.

On Tuesday, the ID, through Seboka, said the latest arrests “of these very high ranking and seasoned police officials endorses the ID’s commitment to dealing with corruption and State Capture regardless of where it manifests itself”. DM