The R54-million fraud and corruption case against former acting national police commissioner Khomotso Phahlane has been postponed to July.
Phahlane and his co-accused appeared before the Pretoria Specialised Commercial Crime Court for the umpteenth time on Tuesday.
The court postponed the criminal case to July 3 for disclosure and for the matter to be transferred to a regional court in Pretoria.
The state was ordered to disclose an outstanding document to one of the defence attorneys.
Phahlane, Lieutenant-Colonel Godfrey Mahwayi, Major-General Maanda Obert Nemutandzhela, Major-General Mankosana Agnes Makhele, and businessmen Inbanathan Kistiah and Avendra Naidoo are facing charges of fraud, corruption, theft and contravention of the Public Finance Management Act relating to contracts valued at about R54-million.
The investigating directorate spokesperson, Henry Mamothame, said their court appearance emanates from incidents in October 2015, wherein university students embarked on the #FeesMustFall protests, which resulted in police being dispatched to restore law and order.
Procurement of software systems
It is alleged that on December 21 2016, the SA Police Service’s (SAPS) crime intelligence division embarked on an emergency procurement of software tools or systems.
Mamothame said: “One of the softwares, RIPJAR, was intended to collect and monitor information from social media platforms on the instigators of the student protests.”
He added that the accused also allegedly attempted to purchase the RIPJAR software from a company that was not involved in software engineering but was a security alarm and surveillance camera company.
It emerged that the owners of the competing companies were friends who, in fact, were involved in cover-quoting.
“The cover quote 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.”
Deviation from procurement processes
Mamothame said that another mobile communication encryption software, known as Daedalus, which was solely used for encrypting calls and wiping out cellphone records and messages, was procured through deviation from standard procurement processes, with the contract signed on the same day and payment made on December 22, a day after approval.
“The software was also used to encrypt voice calls made by the SAPS management at the time when Phahlane was under investigation by IPID [Independent Police Investigative Directorate] for the “blue lights” police tender and other irregular procurement at the time he was acting police commissioner,” Mamothame said.
All the accused are out on bail, and they are expected back in court in July, when the matter resumes.
