New acting national police commissioner Lt-Gen Puleng Dimpane’s affidavit and testimony before Parliament’s ad hoc committee on alleged police capture read like a careful act of positioning from a senior insider.
Her submissions, filed last November, presented her as a central figure in the system’s financial oversight – close enough to see how decisions were made and money was spent – while consistently framing her role as that of monitoring, advising, and raising concerns rather than directing outcomes.
Technocrat at the heart of SAPS leadership
Taken together, they sketched the profile of a technocrat at the heart of the South African Police Service (SAPS) leadership, asserting control over compliance and process and documenting where she flagged risks, even as operational power sat elsewhere.
Dimpane told the committee she reported directly to the national commissioner as an accounting officer and was responsible for overseeing the police budget, expenditure and financial reporting across the country.
She said her duties included “budget management”, “expenditure management”, audit coordination and internal controls, placing her office at the centre of how SAPS allocated and tracked public funds.
No operational decisions
At the same time, she drew a clear boundary around her role, stating: “While I oversee financial operations, it is crucial to understand that my role does not extend to operational decisions.”
She added that she was “not responsible for contract awards” and did not initiate projects or task teams but rather confirmed that funding was available and compliant with financial rules.
In her affidavit, Dimpane said operational decisions were taken by programme managers and ultimately the national commissioner, while her function was to “raise concerns” and assess financial viability.
Cat Matlala deal ’caused harm’
Her evidence also addressed the R360-million SAPS health services contract linked to businessman Vusumuzi “Cat” Matlala, telling the committee the deal had caused “a lot of harm”.
She said she had pushed for a forensic investigation into the contract, which was later cancelled after concerns about procurement processes and the role of a facilitator in the bid evaluation committee.
Dimpane told MPs that internal disciplinary measures for irregular expenditures, such as warnings and counselling, “did not meaningfully deter wrongdoing”.
Financial misconduct ‘not taken seriously enough’
She described what she called a “culture” in SAPS where accountability for financial misconduct was not taken seriously enough.
Her testimony detailed spending on major operations, including R435-million on the Political Killings Task Team since 2018.
She attributed the costs to overtime, travel, accommodation, and subsistence for officers deployed from various regions across the country.
She also outlined broader expenditure pressures, including more than R1-billion spent on illicit mining operations and about R950-million during the 2021 unrest response.
Dimpane informed the committee that these interventions often relied on shifting allocations or alternative sources, depending on the nature of the threat.
She stated that budgeting for such operations posed challenges, as task teams formed in response to crime patterns and could involve deployments from various provinces.
Her affidavit and testimony consistently placed authority for those decisions with operational leadership, while documenting the financial implications and controls attached to them.
Financial oversight challenges
The submissions outlined a structure in which financial oversight, operational commands, and procurement functions had historically sat in separate divisions, with reporting lines converging at the national commissioner.
They also noted that changes approved in 2025 would bring supply chain management under the CFO, though the shift had not yet been fully implemented at the time of her evidence.
Dimpane’s account placed her office at the intersection of governance, compliance, and expenditure, with visibility across SAPS programmes, including visible policing, crime detection, and intelligence.
- New acting national police commissioner Lt-Gen Puleng Dimpane’s affidavit and testimony before Parliament’s ad hoc committee on alleged police capture read like a careful act of positioning from a senior insider.
- Her submissions, filed last November, presented her as a central figure in the system’s financial oversight – close enough to see how decisions were made and money was spent – while consistently framing her role as that of monitoring, advising, and raising concerns rather than directing outcomes.
- Technocrat at the heart of SAPS leadership Taken together, they sketched the profile of a technocrat at the heart of the South African Police Service (SAPS) leadership, asserting control over compliance and process and documenting where she flagged risks, even as operational power sat elsewhere.
- Dimpane told the committee she reported directly to the national commissioner as an accounting officer and was responsible for overseeing the police budget, expenditure and financial reporting across the country.
- She said her duties included “budget management”, “expenditure management”, audit coordination and internal controls, placing her office at the centre of how SAPS allocated and tracked public funds.
