Phahlane says he is a target of the ‘captured’ Ipid but won’t go down without a fight

Suspended acting national police commissioner Lieutenant-General Khomotso Phahlane says he is being deliberately targeted by the Independent Police Investigative Directorate (Ipid), but that he will not go down without a fight at his disciplinary hearing.

The hearing, which will involve a litany of charges against him and which has been postponed, was nothing more than a “serious fishing expedition”, he said.

Phahlane’s hearing was postponed after it emerged he had not yet been given a chance to make representations on the allegations against him. He was suspended more than three months ago.

Phahlane, who is being investigated by the police watchdog on allegations of corruption and money laundering, said Ipid had been “captured” by private investigator Paul O’Sullivan and was no longer a state-run institution.

This thing of the law enforcement agencies being captured is in the minds of those who are hallucinating

O’Sullivan’s influence on Ipid was one of the reasons he was suspended, he claimed.

Phahlane also commented on the recently published book, The President’s Keepers, written by journalist Jacques Pauw, which states that several law enforcement agencies had been captured by corrupt political influences. O’Sullivan has been named as one of Pauw’s sources in the book.

“I hear I am mentioned in that book. But I am not surprised because the source is O’Sullivan. Ipid is captured, it is captured by O’Sullivan. That’s why it is called Opid, O’Sullivan Police Investigative Directorate.

“This thing of the law enforcement agencies being captured is in the minds of those who are hallucinating. When they are dreaming in the middle of the night they say the police are captured. Those institutions are captured by the constitution.”

One of the charges he is facing in terms of the Saps discipline regulations is his alleged failure to disclose a close personal relationship with Jolanta Komodolowicz, director of Saps suppliers Crimetech Laboratories and Kriminalistik, with whom he is accused of having a corrupt relationship.

It is alleged that through these companies, Komodolowicz effectively paid for an R80 000 sound system and an R8 million house.

But Phahlane said his relationship with the businesswoman began in 2010, when she approached him as a whistleblower.

“She has been a service provider in that environment and she was aware of some corrupt practices and made contact with me in the first three months of my position to inform me about what was happening.

“When we followed those matters up it was found to be true and people were taken to task. They were subsequently dismissed and she was one of the witnesses. The only thing still to be finalised was the criminal investigation.”

While the two other suppliers he was accused of having a corrupt relationship with were not mentioned in the disciplinary charge sheet, it recently emerged that Ipid investigators found several transactions between car dealer Durand Snyman and businessman Keith Keating that suggested money had been laundered to buy Phahlane and his family several cars.

The top cop said he only had a “professional relationship” with Keating, who owned another Saps supplier, Forensics Data Analytics. Keating also denied any of his financial dealings with Snyman were related to Phahlane. Phahlane said he and Snyman were friends.

He said the two cars he admitted Snyman sponsored for him until earlier this year were not for his personal use, but to assist his family with charity initiatives they were involved in.

“We were friends. There was even a time we were discussing some time in the future (when he has left Saps) going into business together.” – simnikiweh@citizen.co.za

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