Questions hover over Phahlane’s R80k home theatre system

Acting national police commissioner General Khomotso Phahlane and an appointed supplier to the police of forensic services have denied that there is anything improper about them engaging in private business dealings.

This after Jolanta Komolodowicz, a director of Crimetech Laboratories, in 2012 assisted in the sourcing of an R80 000 home theatre system – paid for by Phahlane – which was installed at his Pretoria home.

The information is contained in sworn statements obtained by forensic consultant Paul O’Sullivan as part of an ongoing Independent Police Investigative Directorate (Hawks) investigation.

Komolodowicz is also a former director of forensic detection company Kriminalistik. Kriminalistik and Crimetech at the time were under investigation by independent auditors CPN Forensic and Accounting Services.

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The report, released last month by Phahlane, found a financial investigation could not substantiate allegations of financial wrongdoing and that SA Police Service (SAPS) Division Supply Chain Management was notified of CPN’s findings about suspected VAT irregularities. Komolodowicz said Phahlane had visited Crimetech’s offices in 2012, when, impressed by the decor, he had asked her who her decorator was. Komolodowicz replied she had done it herself.

“General Phahlane then asked if I would be willing to advise him on decorating the house he was busy building. I agreed to advise General Phahlane, in a strictly business arrangement for which I have been remunerated.”

Phahlane’s spokesperson, Brigadier Hangweni Mulaudzi, slammed any suggestion of wrongdoing.

O’Sullivan said: “It is inconceivable that any senior official, responsible for the SAPS forensics division, would have such a cosy relationship with a supplier that has made, quite literally, millions of rands out of her relationship with the police.”

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