High profile private investigator Paul O’Sullivan has launched a blistering attack on former State Security Agency (SSA) head Arthur Fraser and embattled President Cyril Ramaphosa’s head of security Wally Rhoode as the fallout from the February 2020 burglary at the president’s Limpopo farm deepens.
On Friday, O’Sullivan deposed a sworn statement at the Rosebank Police Station in which the forensic consultant is asking the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) to reinstate charges of tender fraud against Rhoode and also charge Fraser for theft of money belonging to the SSA.
In 2011, Rhoode, who was then NPA’s security head, was charged along two other officials with fraud related to a R19-million contract to provide security at the buildings of the prosecuting body.
The charges were later dropped, and it was alleged that Lawrence Mrwebi, then head of the NPA’s Specialised Commercial Crime Unit, had intervened for the case to be thrown out.
Mrwebi was embroiled in controversy after allegations he had intervened in the matter before charges against former crime intelligence boss Richard Mdluli were dropped.
He was also criticised after he reviewed charges against senior ANC KwaZulu-Natal leaders Mike Mabuyakhulu and Peggy Nkonyeni.
In his sworn statement, O’Sullivan, who opened a criminal docket against Fraser, said Mrwebi’s role in the withdrawal of charges against Rhoode should be “carefully reviewed”.
“It is believed that the charges against Rhoode and his accomplices were unlawfully dropped due to the unlawful intervention of persons close to the then president Jacob Zuma. The role of the then director in charge of the commercial crime unit, advocate Lawrence Mrwebi, needs to be carefully reviewed to ascertain why the criminal charges against Rhoode and his accomplices were dropped, with the view of reinstating them.
“Rhoode was previously employed by the National Prosecuting Authority during a period when the NPA and police/DPCI (Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation) had been criminally captured by persons close to Zuma, so that those engaged in corruption for the benefit of Zuma and his allies would be protected from prosecution.
“That protection was extended to Rhoode by senior NPA officials who caused the unlawful withdrawal of charges against him and those charged with him.”
O’Sullivan recently told Sunday Times that Fraser had tricked Rhoode into giving out details of the theft at the farm in exchange of wiping out his “considerable indebtedness”. Rhoode denied this, saying he wanted to meet O’Sullivan and tell him off.
It appears a ferocious war is raging between Rhoode and O’Sullivan.
“It is not known how an individual that had been arrested and charged with corruption was able to worm his way into the police at the rank of major-general unless some or other form of corruption took place,” O’Sullivan said. He was responding to a recent statement that Fraser made to the Hawks to supplement his criminal complaint he lodged against Rhoode and Ramaphosa in June.
In the statement, Fraser alleged O’Sullivan, whom he claimed to be a close associate of both Ramaphosa and his adviser Bejani Chauke, had used his company to assist in tracing those who broke into Phala Phala and made off with large amounts of cash.
Fraser claimed $4-million (R61-million) was stolen at Ramaphosa’s farm in Bela Bela. He reported a kidnapping and money laundering case against Ramaphosa, Rhoode and Crime Intelligence members for allegedly concealing and not officially reporting a burglary at the president’s farm.
O’Sullivan said he analysed Fraser’s docket and found Fraser’s allegations on his involvement in the Phala Phala cover up were not only “fraudulently untrue” but also defamatory.
“It is time the state dealt with this fraudster in the manner befitting his crimes,” he said.
O’Sullivan said Fraser was part of a conspiracy to overthrow Ramaphosa as part of efforts to “recapture” the criminal justice system to avoid going to jail for his alleged offences during his tenure as a spy boss.
Follow @SundayWorldZA on Twitter and @sundayworldza on Instagram, or like our Facebook Page, Sunday World, by clicking here for the latest breaking news in South Africa. To Subscribe to Sunday World, click here.
