The Khan and the king power struggle — Crime Intelligence deputy Feroz Khan’s battle reflects SAPS decline

Beleaguered deputy Crime Intelligence head Feroz Khan is fighting to keep his job after the initiation of an expeditious disciplinary process by his superior, Crime Intelligence head Lieutenant General Dumisani Khumalo. 

Khan, who survived previous allegations of impropriety due to his ownership of lucrative private businesses and procurements from the Crime Intelligence secret service account, alleges that the disciplinary process – and its expeditious nature – is in retaliation for disclosures he made of alleged misconduct by Khumalo and other senior SAPS members.

Khumalo too has had allegations raised against him previously – that his appointment did not follow due process and was made to protect senior officials, including former police minister Bheki Cele, from investigation.

Khan’s matter is due to be heard in the labour court in November. 

While a dramatic standoff between two of some of the most senior members of the SAPS, Khan’s battle against Khumalo for his job is a signifier of the much more serious problem of the factionalism present within both SAPS and Crime Intelligence.

“You can’t fix an organisation just by changing the head. It’s like putting a good person in charge of the Mafia and saying, reform it. There’s an institutional loss that’s happening,” says Gareth Newham, head of the Justice and Violence Prevention Programme at the Institute for Security Studies (ISS).

Read more: General Feroz Khan’s business interests and unlawful secret service account sign-offs are indeed a matter of grave public concern

Crime Intelligence: A legacy corrupted

With several thousand members and a R4-billion annual budget, SAPS Crime Intelligence is meant to play a crucial role in South African policing, acting as both a vector for directing police efforts where they can make the greatest impact, and as a covert force multiplier against serious and organised crime.

But it hasn’t worked that way for some time, at least since the appointment of Jackie Selebi to the role of National Police Commissioner in 2000.

“With Selebi, the issue of integrity went out the window – he was a criminal, and corrupt” continued Newham.

“When he started being investigated by the Scorpions, he then used his authority to redirect and repurpose SAPS Crime Intelligence – particularly in Gauteng, where Richard Mdluli, the head of Crime Intelligence, was based – to attack the Scorpions, to find ways to disrupt their investigations, and that is where things started going seriously wrong.”

And seriously wrong they did go; Selebi was eventually convicted of corruption, Mdluli was arrested and charged with murder, fraud and corruption, as well as having employed various family members and allies as intelligence operatives. That was in 2011.

Since then, almost every national head of SAPS Crime Intelligence has either faced their own allegations, or largely been in an acting role with reports that Mdluli still was the power behind the throne.

“If the heads of these organisations are captured, they’re not interested in how effective that organisation is or fulfilling its constitutional mandate, but using it for personal and political reasons… The entire organisation just falls apart” said Newham.

“That’s what happened to Crime Intelligence.”

Major general on the scene

In 2021, a truck carrying almost a tonne of cocaine arrived at a warehouse in Aeroton. A Gauteng Highway Patrol officer on the scene allegedly found himself in a confrontation with other members of the police claiming to be from Crime Intelligence and the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation (DPCI), and who were attempting to remove the cocaine without following proper crime scene procedure. 

The Highway Patrol officer called Major General Khan, and so his woes began. 

In summary, according to Khan’s versions of events submitted as part of labour court documents in his defence against his disciplinary hearing, he called all necessary senior personnel and attended the scene himself along with Gauteng Provincial DPCI head Major General Ebrahim Kadwa, and Major General Lekalakala, provincial head of Crime Intelligence, in an attempt to resolve the issue. Once Kadwa arrived, Khan alleges he left the scene.

His current disciplinary charges reportedly stem from his involvement at the crime scene. 

In June of 2023 – two years after the incident occurred – IPID initiated proceedings against Khan, and a month later recommended disciplinary proceedings be taken against him. A case was also opened against him along with Kadwa and other SAPS members, which the deputy director of public prosecutions declined to pursue. 

Glaring questions

Khan’s version of events here is critically symbolic even if imperfect in veracity; why would a sergeant in the Gauteng Highway Patrol have the phone number of a Crime Intelligence boss?

Why would Khan not be aware of such an operation if members of Crime Intelligence participated in the operation?

Why did it take Ipid two years to investigate the matter? If the misconduct was so serious, why did the deputy director of public prosecutions decline to prosecute?

Daily Maverick put these questions to Khan through his attorney Ian Small-Smith, who stated that it was not possible for his client to respond directly, as he was head of counter-intelligence and thus had to follow strict structures in order to speak to the media. 

Ipid spokesperson Lizzy Suping said, "Ipid had conducted an investigation against Khan and others on defeating the ends of justice. A docket has been referred to the DPP for a decision to prosecute. IPID has also made disciplinary recommendations to SAPS as the employer."

SAPS spokesperson Brigadier Athlende Mathe declined detailed comment, stating, “This is an internal matter that is receiving the necessary attention and won’t be discussed through the media.”

Read more: Millionaire top cop at centre of feud between police minister and national commissioner

Dismantled institutions

The inciting incident and respective action and inaction by law enforcement bodies and state arms are emblematic of exactly the challenges that face these institutions: factionalism, political interference and the systematic dismantling of institutions meant to protect and serve the country.

Khan was cleared in 2021 by an internal SAPS investigation into his ownership of at least six lucrative businesses, which render him an apparent millionaire. He attended a lavish EFF gala dinner last year, and at his table was known tobacco smuggler Adriano Mazzotti.

Khan alleges that the man appointed to investigate him, Major General Moses Makubo, was also assigned to chair his disciplinary hearing.

Khan’s boss, Khumalo, has not only been alleged to have been appointed to protect corrupt SAPS members from prosecution, but has also been accused of using the same expeditious disciplinary process to remove integrous SAPS members who were deemed an obstacle.

All of which is to draw a picture of two powerful men in conflict within a crumbling, critical state institution not even close to reaching its potential efficacy, while South Africans bear both the fiscal and criminal cost.

SA’s loss

Khan’s application will see him face off against the SAPS in the labour court on 5 November, but whatever the outcome of the case itself, it’s unlikely that any South African citizen will see a victory.

As a senior member of the division of SAPS that failed to provide a single reliable report on the July 2021 unrest that left more than 300 dead and billions of rands in damage, Khan’s battle against Khumalo is symptomatic of a much larger malaise within the institution.

“These institutions have now got organisational cultures that are characterised by mistrust, by dishonesty, by lack of transparency and accountability,” said Newham.

“If the systems were changed and restructured to work effectively ... we would be in a very different country.” DM

This article was updated on Friday November 1 at 3.20pm, with NPA and Ipid comment.