Police officers spent R5.3m on fake EFF and Fees Must Fall investigations – report

A report in the Sunday Independent accuses top police officers of looting crime intelligence funds to the tune of R5.3 million.

The publication says an internal report shows that these officials embarked on supposed investigations into the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) and Fees Must Fall movement leadership, but spent the money meant for these investigations on luxury hotels.

They also allegedly paid various amounts to non-existent “informants”.

According to the report, Major-General Deena Moodley and Colonel Preadhashni Govender spent a night at the Drakensburg Sun Resort in December, 2016, under the pretext that they were “attending a meeting by EFF members planning a rally” due to “conspiracy to commit arson by EFF Student Command”, changing theirs stories to say they were investigating a plot to poison former president Jacob Zuma and a bomb threat on embassies in SA when it emerged that no such EFF rally was taking place.

“It was further established that Colonel Govender and Major-General Moodley were alone at Drakensberg Sun”, despite a room being booked for a supposed informant meant to “monitor an EFF Student Command meeting”, the publication quotes official documents as saying.

In addition to this, amounts of R50,000 were allegedly paid to informants who didn’t exist.

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The report indicates that Moodley “dropped the call” when approached for comment and that Govender handed the phone to her brother who claimed this information was “leaked” by people with a “vendetta” against the colonel.

The article was co-written by a trio that included Piet Rampedi and Mzilikazi wa Afrika – two of the journalists behind now-discredited Sunday Times reports on the so-called Sars “rogue unit”. They both parted ways with the Sunday Times after these reports were retracted and apologised for when the media ombudsman found them to be “inaccurate, misleading, and unfair”.

The three journalists also wrote a report titled: “How the CR17 campaign funds were channelled”, looking into leaked emails from President Cyril Ramaphosa’s successful CR17 campaign for the ANC presidency.

It was reported that the publication had seen the campaign’s bank records, as well as emails and financial statements which identified the beneficiaries of the “R1 billion” campaign fund, who according to the story were “politicians, campaign managers, and strategists” who “earned millions for their roles in” the campaign.

The report alleged that some of Ramaphosa’s main funders were numerous wealthy businesspeople, including mining magnate Nicky Oppenheimer, who reportedly gave R10 million; Pick n Pay founder Raymond Ackerman, who gave R1 million; and eNCA founder, director and owner of Hosken Consolidated Investments Johnny Copelyn, who donated an alleged R2 million on behalf of the news channel. Former Absa CEO Maria Ramos was another alleged donor.

(Compiled by Daniel Friedman)

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