President Cyril Ramaphosa’s office was warned weeks before the appointment of Fanie Masemola about the “compromising” financial situation that made the South African Police Service (SAPS) national commissioner a “high risk” for the position of the country’s top cop.
Private investigator Paul O’Sullivan, known for having investigated corruption claims against two former police commissioners – Jackie Selebi and Kgomotso Phahlane – has revealed that he handed over a detailed report to Ramaphosa’s special adviser, Bejani Chauke, giving reasons why Masemola was unfit for the sensitive post.
O’Sullivan has now, in a letter, urged Ramaphosa to suspend Masemola with immediate
effect as he also warned that he “will do whatever it takes to get rid of him”.
He was reacting to last week’s Sunday World report that the National Prosecuting Authority’s Investigating Directorate was probing allegations that Masemola and KwaZulu-Natal commissioner Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi had failed to declare lavish gifts from a service provider who had scored a multimillion tender from the SAPS.
In an email to Chauke, O’Sullivan reminds the latter that in March he provided a detailed analysis of the eight names the adviser had provided for background check.
“You may recall that in March of this year, at my own expense, I provided a detailed analysis of the names you provided me with, from which you said Cyril would appoint a new chief of police.
“In my report dated March 2022, I made it very clear Masemola was living beyond his means and was also living on revolving credit, whereby he was taking out one loan to pay off another loan. This makes him a very high-risk individual and most unsuitable for the appointment to the highest office in the police.
“Despite my clear warnings, my advice was ignored, and his appointment was pushed through, with the best candidate for the job being sidelined after having his interview cancelled the day before it was to take place …,” he added.
O’Sullivan also claimed in the email to Chauke that two weeks after he handed him the report into the eight candidates, he bumped into Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana and they discussed the lack of integrity of the senior cops in SAPS.
“I mentioned that I had sent you a detailed report on eight names, six of whom were wholly unsuitable. Enoch asked me to send him that report in confidence, which I did,” O’Sullivan wrote.
In the report, O’Sullivan said with four properties in Pretoria, Pietermaritzburg and Bloemfontein, a BMW X5, a revolving loan and credit cards, Masemola was living beyond his R129 000 gross salary.
The back-to-back loans Masemola received were generally seen as serious red flags, O’Sullivan wrote.
In February 2019, Masemola took out a R200 000 personal loan from Nedbank and it was repaid seven months later.
“Records indicate that in order to pay off that loan, the subject took out another loan in the amount of R238 000.”
A deeds search shows that Masemola bought property at Lakestead in Pretoria’s Rietvlei Ridge Country Estate for R1.5-million in June 2011. He also owns a house in Orchards, Pretoria, which was funded by a bank to the tune of R165 000 in 1996.
Records also show that Masemola has in his name property in Bloemfontein, which he got through a bank for R380 000 in September 2017. In 2005, Masemola purchased a house in Pietermaritzburg for R445 000.
“Subject’s current debt burden, including arrears is shown at R2 323 646, which includes revolving credit, credits cards, vehicles and property loans. Subject drives a BMW X5, financed by Standard Bank,” the report states.
O’Sullivan’s warning to Ramaphosa also comes in the wake of claims by former State Security Agency boss, Arthur Fraser, who has alleged that the forensic investigator had a hand in covering up the theft that occurred at the president’s Phala Phala farm in February 2020.
In a letter widely believed to have been authored by Fraser to the Hawks, the former director-general of SSA claims that “Mr O’Sullivan, a close associate of both the president and Mr Chauke, is said to have used his private investigation company to assist in the tracing of those alleged to have broken into the president’s residence”.
O’Sullivan has dismissed the allegations, saying he had gone through Fraser’s initial affidavit, which was 95% false.
He told the SABC that he got to know about the Phala Phala theft through the media.
Godongwana did not deny or confirm O’Sullivan’s claim, only saying: “No comment.”
Masemola did not respond to written questions.
SAPS spokesperson Athlenda Mathe said: “The SAPS will not comment on the contents of a document it is not privy to”.
Police Minister Bheki Cele’s spokesperson Lirandzu had not responded at the time of going to press.
Presidency spokesperson Vincent Magwenya said Ramaphosa appointed Masemola following a thorough selection, interview, assessment and recommendation process.
“A panel of individuals with the prerequisite skills and expertise to assess the fitness to hold the office of the National Police Commissioner managed the process. In the event of accusations of any wrongdoing, the national police commissioner must be subject to whatever necessary processes of investigations,” he said.
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