PRETORIA – Fifteen people have been arrested on Warrants of Arrest in connection with alleged corruption in supply chain processes in the R56 million-rand car markings tender.
Nine of the suspects arrested are former and serving South African Police Service members while six are either associated with or are suppliers and a seventh is on the run said SAPS spokesperson Brig Vishnu Naidoo.
According to Naidoo the accused were arrested between 09:30am on Friday 28 August 2020 and 1:30pm Saturday 29 August 2020. The arrests are a result of an integrated team comprising of members of the National Commissioner’s Task Team and the NPA’s Investigating Directorate under Advocate Hermione Cronje.
The National Commissioner of the South African Police Service, General Khehla John Sitole has commended the arrests made by the multidisciplinary Task Team.
The team initially arrested seven police personnel at the Supply Chain offices in Silverton followed by two retired Captains at their respective homes. The police personnel comprised of four junior managers at the rank of Captain, a Warrant Officer and five Admin Clerks.
The arrest of these 15 suspects over this past weekend brings the total to 31 accused in connection with the multimillion-rand Police vehicle marking case. This after 16 accused, including a retired police General, senior and junior officers as well as suppliers, were arrested on 4th of June this year.
The latest 15 accused have all been charged on Friday and they are to appear for the first time in the Pretoria Magistrate’s court on Monday, 31 August 2020 on charges of Fraud, Corruption, Money Laundering and Theft which allegedly relates to the manipulation of procurement documents for the branding of vehicles and a host of other transactions.
Thereafter these accused will be expected to reappear on 29 September 2020 together with initial 16 accused who are currently out on bail.
The National Commissioner has been continually highlighting the commitment of SAPS management to root out all forms of criminality from the SAPS. This following the dismissal of a Lieutenant General from the SAPS earlier this month as well as multiple arrests and prosecution of both senior and junior personnel of the SAPS.
“I have always been very clear that criminality by members of the SAPS will neither be tolerated nor condoned, working with the Investigating Directorate has assisted in expediting this”, said General Sitole.
