Op-Ed: Has Paul O'Sullivan played the Hawks for April fools?

On 15 March Paul O'Sullivan emailed Hawks spokesperson, Brigadier Hangwani Mulaudzi, about the Hawks' delivery of 27 questions to Minister of Finance, Pravin Gordhan. O'Sullivan was not polite.

Three paragraphs into it this:

“I have today started a process that will see Ntlemeza go to prison and spend a very long time there. There will be a lot of other dirty cops joining him there. Of this I am 100% certain.”

And then much later:

“One thing’s for sure, I’m meeting in Whitehall on 2016-04-04 and I will hand a detailed report of the levels of corruption that this country has sunk to, with a request that it be shared globally, and this rot can be brought to a halt, by targeting the Zupta’s and his dirty generals. Remember, DON’T even dream of sending dirty cops to raid me like was done by that crook Moonoo last year, I will tear into you all, like a rabid dog.”

Now, anyone reasonably well acquainted (as I am, having agreed to help write his book) with the occasionally unorthodox nature of the Irish-born investigator's work will know he is the ultimate trickster. He enjoys it.

O'Sullivan is a seasoned detective and investigator. It's what he does, it's his life, it provides him with energy and oxygen. It's the hunt. It's his thing.

During his investigation into Selebi, which took up years of his life and cost him millions, O'Sullivan often resorted to email provocation to unsettle his targets. In November 2007, after months of threatening Selebi with “outing” him at various Interpol regional conferences, O'Sullivan pulled off the coup de grâce of his campaign at the Interpol 76^th General Assembly in Marrakesh Morocco.

Selebi, who was then head of Interpol, was set to present an opening speech to some of the world's most senior law enforcement officers. During a tea break, O'Sullivan, snuck into the conference room of the five-star, luxury Espace Hotel Mansour Eddahbi Palais des Congrès and placed a 12-page brochure titled “How the Mafia Have Infiltrated Interpol” on every seat. He left the top table, where Selebi was to be seated, clear. Then he then made a dash for London.

O'Sullivan has been investigating several high-profile police officers and has let them know, in no uncertain terms, that he is doing so. He has forwarded affidavits to the Hawks demanding investigations into these corrupt police officers.

It is unsurprising then to learn of reports on eNCA suggesting that a task team has been investigating O'Sullivan for conducting illegal surveillance.

On Friday night the Hawks arrested O'Sullivan at OR Tambo Airport when police allegedly found him in possession of three passports and apparently in violation of South Africa's immigration laws. (Daily Maverick has asked the Hawks for confirmation but at the time of writing had not received a response.)

South Africans entitled to dual passports must first seek permission from the Department of Home Affairs before acquiring the citizenship of another country. Individuals who hold dual passports without this automatically lose their South African citizenship.

According to the Department, “Unless you have been granted retention of your South African citizenship prior to acquiring another citizenship, you will lose your South African citizenship automatically if you are 18 years and older and have obtained the citizenship of another country by a voluntary and formal act, other than marriage, orare serving in the armed forces of another country (where you are also a citizen) and that country is at war with South Africa.”

In 1989 O'Sullivan applied for a South African residence permit, sold all his assets in the UK land settled with his family in Johannesburg. O'Sullivan later became a South African citizen and in 2014 joined Mamphela Ramphele's Agang, only to resign eight weeks later. (He announced afterwards that he had voted for the ANC.)

O'Sullivan has extensive networks within SAPS. Interestingly enough, one of the first statements Robert McBride made after being appointed head of the Independent Police Investigative Directorate (IPID) in 2014 was to publicly apologise to O’Sullivan.

“In November 2006, the Independent Complaints Directorate (ICD), the predecessor to IPID, issued a statement and posted it on its website, which cast aspersions on the integrity of Mr Paul O’Sullivan about the allegations he had made against then SAPS National Commissioner, Jackie Selebi,” said McBride.

McBride now, of course, finds himself in the dock along with two other IPID investigators on what he alleges are charges that have been trumped up by the new Hawks head, Lieutenant General Mthandazo Berning Ntlemeza.

McBride's co-accused, former IPID investigator, Innocent Kuba, told a Pretoria court on 18 March that Ntlemeza had collaborated with ex-crime intelligence boss Richard Mdluli to have former Hawks head, Anwa Dramat, suspended. Dramat was handling several sensitive cases, including an investigation into Nkandla.

Kuba was investigating Dramat and former Gauteng Hawks head Shadrack Sibiya with regard to the 2010/2011 Zimbabwean rendition. He was fired in October 2015 after signing an affidavit stating that McBride had not “doctored” a report exonerating Dramat and Sibiya.

In a statement to the court Kuba dropped the bombshell that he feared for his safety because “members of the Hawks had already made advances asking me to make a statement that implicates McBride and the IPID’s former head of investigations, Matthews Sesoko, in order to be reinstated into my position”.

Dramat, Sibiya and former Hawks acting head Lesley Maluleke are currently facing charges of kidnapping, defeating the ends of justice and illegal deportation in terms of the Immigration Act.

Paul O'Sullivan is intricately involved in attempting to unravel what he perceives as a nest of corrupt cops. He ended one of his emails to the Hawks last month with the provocative “STOP ME IF YOU CAN!”

And like a darted rogue elephant, it appears as if the Hawks took the bait. O'Sullivan's mails have been sent out and read, he has attached his affidavits and statements. And now everyone knows what the forensic investigator has been up to.

Of course arresting him on a Friday night – thus forcing him to spend the weekend in jail - might just be the beginning for O'Sullivan, but now he is back firmly in the public eye, exactly where he wanted to be. DM

Photo: Paul O'Sullivan (Sally Shorkend for Maverick magazine)