Former police commissioner Phahlane’s fraud case to go to regional court

Former acting police commissioner, Khomotso Phahlane and other high-ranking police officials appeared in court on Tuesday for fraud and corruption charges amounting to R54 million.

The Pretoria Specialised Commercial Crime Court however saw the case postponed to 3 July for disclosure and to be transferred to the Pretoria Regional Court. The state was ordered to disclose an outstanding document to one defence attorney by 17 May.

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Dodgy software contracts

Phahlane, Lieutenant-Colonel Godfrey Mahwayi, Major-General Maanda Obert Nemutandzhela, Major-General Mankosana Agnes Makhele and businessmen Inbanathan Kistiah and Avendra Naidoo are facing charges of fraud, corruption, theft and contravention of the Public Finance Management Act (PFMA) relating to two contracts.

Their court appearance stem from incidents in October 2015, when university students embarked on the #FeesMustFall protests, with police dispatched to stabilise the violent unrest.

National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) spokesperson Henry Mamothame explained that on 21 December 2016, the South African Police Service (Saps) Crime Intelligence Division embarked on an emergency procurement of software tools or systems.

One of the softwares, RIPJAR, was intended to collect and monitor information from social media platforms on the instigators of the student protests.

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It however emerged that these “emergency” response measures came about in December 2016 though the protest had started more than a year before.

Furthermore, they allegedly attempted to purchase RIPJAR software from a company that was not involved in software engineering, but was a security alarms and surveillance cameras company.

It further emerged that the owners of the competing companies were friends and were involved in cover quoting.

The cover quoting was supplied to Inbanathan Kistiah by the former husband of the sole director of a company called Perfect Source, which was a human resource recruitment company.

Software used to protect Phahlane

Another mobile communication encryption software known as Daedalus, which was solely used for encrypting calls and wiping out cellphone records and messages, was procured through deviation from standard procurement processes, with the contract signed on the same day and payment made on 22 December, a day after approval.

The software was also used to encrypt voice calls made by Saps management at the time when Phahlane was under investigation by the Independent Police Investigative Directorate (Ipid) for the “Blue Lights” police tender and other irregular procurement at the time he was acting police commissioner.

All the accused are out on bail.

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