The daring multimillion rand heist at President Cyril Ramaphosa’s Phala Phala farm in Limpopo has returned to court, six years after thieves allegedly helped themselves to foreign currency hidden inside furniture just weeks before Covid-19 restrictions locked down the whole of South Africa.
ActionSA has hauled the country’s police leadership before the Pretoria High Court, seeking to overturn the disciplinary acquittals of two Presidential Protection Service (PPS) officers implicated in the extraordinary events that followed the February 2020 burglary.
Former PPS head Maj-Gen Wally Rhoode and Hlulani Rekhoto were ultimately cleared through internal SAPS disciplinary processes despite adverse findings by the Public Protector and Independent Police Investigative Directorate (Ipid).
ActionSA national chairperson Michael Beaumont now wants the court to pull back the curtain on how those acquittals were reached.
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The national police commissioner, police minister, SAPS and several senior officers are cited as respondents. The Public Protector and Ipid executive director are also cited.
ActionSA has branded the disciplinary process a politically driven “whitewash”.
The court battle opens another chapter in a scandal where the stolen money was only the beginning of the mystery.
Alleged flaws in Phala Phala burglary probe
According to ActionSA’s founding affidavit, the Public Protector found that PPS members acted improperly while investigating the Phala Phala burglary.
Rhoode allegedly failed to inform his commanding officer about the crime and no criminal docket was initially registered.
Instead, he allegedly assembled his own investigation team, interviewed suspects, conducted surveillance and travelled to Cape Town tracing suspects.
Ipid later found information of “evidential value” showing Rhoode and Rekhoto had transgressed SAPS policies and prescripts.
Police commissioner left in the dark
Its findings included that the then national police commissioner was never informed about the alleged security breach at the president’s farm.
According to the court papers, the commissioner only became aware of the allegations through media reports after his retirement.
Ipid recommended disciplinary action.
But when the wheels of police discipline eventually turned, they travelled in a markedly different direction.
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Rhoode faced three misconduct allegations during proceedings in February 2024.
One concerned his alleged failure to open a criminal case after learning about the burglary and instead investigating it himself.
Another related to an Occurrence Book, while the third concerned an allegedly misleading itinerary for a June 2020 trip to Namibia.
Two charges were withdrawn. Rhoode was acquitted on the remaining charge.
Occurrence Book mystery
Now an ordinary police record book has emerged as one of the most extraordinary features of the court fight.
ActionSA’s papers state the Occurrence Book was retrieved from storage, collected by a driver and handed to a colonel, who took it to Rhoode’s residence.
“The record does not disclose what steps, if any, were taken to preserve the integrity of that document while it was in the possession of the member under investigation,” Beaumont states.
Suspects interviewed without SAPS CAS number
Rekhoto was separately accused of interviewing suspected Phala Phala burglars on March 3 and 4, 2020 without a SAPS CAS number despite circumstances indicating a crime had occurred.
He was also acquitted.
ActionSA said the disciplinary records it eventually obtained were strikingly brief – four pages for Rhoode and two for Rekhoto.
Beaumont said they contained no record of witnesses being called or evidence presented.
“Neither the Public Protector nor Ipid participated in the process, despite their findings,” he said.
The party alleges none of the misconduct provisions identified by Ipid were included in the charge sheet.
ActionSA only learnt through parliamentary questions in September 2025 that both officers had been cleared.
It subsequently used access-to-information processes to obtain Ipid’s report and later the disciplinary records.
The party now wants the complete Rule 53 record, appointment records of disciplinary presiding officers, charge sheets, evidence and records of further SAPS investigations.
It also wants Rekhoto’s 2023 statement and documentation surrounding the Occurrence Book.
Beaumont said the case was ultimately about whether justice could operate differently depending on who stood beneath its scales.
“If justice bends according to convenience, comfort or political interest, then the concepts of innocence and guilt lose their meaning for everyone else,” he said.
- The Phala Phala farm heist involved the theft of foreign currency hidden in furniture in February 2020, weeks before Covid-19 lockdowns in South Africa.
- Two Presidential Protection Service officers, Maj-Gen Wally Rhoode and Hlulani Rekhoto, were acquitted by SAPS disciplinary processes despite adverse findings from the Public Protector and Ipid.
- ActionSA has taken the police leadership to court, seeking to overturn these acquittals and describe the disciplinary process as a politically driven "whitewash".
- Investigation flaws included Rhoode not informing superiors or opening a criminal docket, independently investigating the case, and Rekhoto interviewing suspects without a SAPS CAS number.
- Disciplinary records disclosed no witnesses or evidence, and both officers were only cleared in 2025 after ActionSA used access-to-information processes to obtain reports and records.
