Phahlane corruption case postponed to July
It is alleged that on December 21, 2016, police opened an emergency procurement process to buy software with which to collect information on and monitor the instigators of the student protest on social media.
The Pretoria specialised commercial crime court has postponed the R54-million fraud and corruption case against a former acting police commissioner, and his five co-accused.
Former top cop Khomotso Phahlane and his co-accused are expected to return to court on July 3 for disclosure and case transfer to the Pretoria regional court.
NPA spokesperson Henry Mamothame said the state was ordered to hand over an outstanding document to one of the defence attorneys by May 17.
The accused are:
– Former acting police commissioner Khomotso Phahlane
– Lieutenant-Colonel Godfrey Mahwayi
– Major-General Maanda Obert Nemutandzhela
– Major-General Mankosana Agnes Makhele
– businessmen Inbanathan Kistiah and Avendra Naidoo
Mamothame said all face fraud, corruption, theft and contravention of the Public Finance Management Act (PFMA) charges relating to two contracts valued at approximately R54-million.
He said the case emanates from the October 2015 #FeesMustFall protests.
“It is alleged that on December 21, 2016, the police crime intelligence division embarked on an emergency procurement of software tools or systems. One of the tools, Ripjar, was intended to collect information on and monitor the instigators of the student protest on social media,” he said.
Mamothame said however the “emergency” response measures came about almost a full year after the protest.
He said they also attempted to buy the Ripjar from a company that was not involved in software engineering, but security alarms and surveillance cameras systems.
“It further emerged that the owners of the competing companies were friends, who in fact and truth 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.”
Mamothame said police also bought Daedalus, software used to encrypt calls and wipe clean cellphone records and messages without following tender procedure.
He said the contract was signed on the day of approval and payment made on December 22, the next day.
“The software was used to encrypt voice calls made by police management at the time Phahlane, then acting police commissioner, was under investigation for tender irregularity.”
The accused are out on bail and expected back in court in July when the case resumes.
Also read: Ambulance damaged in spiking plague incident on N4
Do you have more information about the story?
Please send us an email to bennittb@rekord.co.za or phone us on 083 625 4114.
For free breaking and community news, visit Rekord’s websites: Rekord East
For more news and interesting articles, like Rekord on Facebook, follow us on Twitter or Instagram
