Controversial private forensic investigator Paul O’Sullivan’s mysterious history and how he ended up in South Africa came under scrutiny in parliament at the Ad Hoc committee investigating allegations of corruption on Tuesday that he captured the Independent Police Investigative Directorate (Ipid).
O’Sullivan had to explain how he came to hold three citizenships of Ireland, Britain and South Africa.
He testified that he had in fact been born in the UK to Irish parents and spent his early life there. He also finished his basic education there.
After that, he joined the UK military intelligence and served under the counter-terrorism and counter-espionage department.
Career in intelligence questioned
This had committee members interested in whether O’Sullivan had served in the MI6, the foreign branch of the British intelligence. This is a long-standing allegation he quickly denied, saying MI6 and MI5 were different from the British Intelligence that he worked for.
He was also quizzed by evidence leader Advocate Norman Arendse SC if, during his time working for British Intelligence, which was during apartheid, he had spied on the ANC, which was classified as a terrorist organisation at the time.
“I worked for the British government in counterterrorism and counterespionage, which involved making sure that the people who wanted to do harm to the country were identified. I was involved in that work,” he said.
“My activities related to European activities, nothing to do with Africa (such as spying on the ANC or its leaders). I served in the army and military intelligence.”
That was until he decided to quit and went to pursue studies in tertiary education towards electrical engineering.
After this, he joined technology and consulting multinational IBM in the company’s property management division.
He claimed that during his stint at IBM, he fell in love with property development. Later he decided to go it alone and become his own boss.
Moved to SA as property developer
In the mid-1980s, he claimed, the property market had started plummeting in the UK. And he looked into South Africa, a country he had been frequenting for years as a tourist.
“In late 1988, the property market in the UK collapsed. I already had investments elsewhere in the world and had been to South Africa several times for holidays. I loved the people and the weather. And I decided I was going to invest in property here, and that is what I did,” said O’Sullivan.
“I came here as a tourist, not as a terrorist. I took the decision that it was a nice country and one that would be good to invest in. And that is what I did. I liked the country and wanted to live here. By the time I came to live here, I had already bought property here.”
A year later, in 1989, O’Sullivan uprooted his life in the UK and came to South Africa.
He was questioned on how he became a forensic investigator when he had no training in the field. And how in the mid-1990s he was training police reservists when he himself was not a trained cop.
Trained in investigation in SA
“I had training in investigation, not forensic investigation. I did not have any forensic training; I had it whilst I was living in South Africa.
“Of course, I was a police reservist and did all necessary training and became efficient in investigating murder, corruption, and fraud.”
He claimed that in 1997, he was training police reservists, including now President Cyril Ramaphosa, on the bill of rights and the constitution.
This sent committee members on an inquisitive expedition.
EFF’s Julius Malema and MKP’s David Sikhosana asked how he was training police reservists when he only had a three-month-long training he received from the Paarl police academy.
Moreover, the committee members pressed him: why would he train persons such as Ramaphosa, who had been part of the people who drafted the constitution and the bill of rights he claims was the focus of his course?
“I knew him (Ramaphosa) already; I had met him in Soweto before. And suddenly he was a police reservist student in my class. When I lectured these students, one of the areas was the constitution and ethics. My area of interest was the Bill of Rights.
Trained Ramaphosa about constitution
“I was only interested in the Bill of Rights that the students we were putting out should not go out to abuse the rights of others. When I had Mr Ramaphosa as a student, it was a great opportunity to canvass these issues. There were no qualifications then. I had no qualifications to train anybody about the constitution.”
O’Sullivan received his permanent residency for South Africa the very year — 1989. He moved into the country full-time. In 1994, he applied for citizenship and was granted the same a year later.
The committee, however, heard how O’Sullivan had in fact been begging his friends in higher places to be given South African citizenship by 1982 already. This he did in a letter that he penned, which he now conveniently does not recall. In the letter he claimed he wanted to “learn the South African way of life”.
His testimony continues, and will likely reach boiling point when committee members directly question him on Wednesday.
