The corruption case of former acting police commissioner, Khomotso Phahlane and his co-accused, has been transferred from the Pretoria Specialised Commercial Crime Court to the Gauteng High Court, Pretoria.
The six are set to appear for a pre-trial conference on October 21.
Phahlane and his co-accused were arrested in September 2022 for their alleged involvement in two police tenders totalling more than R54 million.
In March this year, General Phahlane, Lieutenant-Colonel Godfrey Mahwayi, Major-General Maanda Obert Nemutandzhela, Major-General Mankosana Agnes Makhele and businessmen Inbanathan Kistiah and Avendra Naidoo, appeared in the Pretoria Commercial Crimes Court on charges of fraud and corruption, theft and contravention of the Public Finance Management Act (PFMA), relating to the contracts.
According to the NPA, one of the contracts relates to the irregular procurement of software called RIPJAR, meant to be used during the incidents of October 2015, while the #FeesMustFall protests by university students were under way .
The other alleged irregular contract relates to the procurement of a communication encryption software, Daedalus, which was solely used for encrypting calls and wiping out cellphone records and messages, when Phahlane was being investigated by IPID for the “Blue Lights” police tender and other irregular procurement while he was acting police commissioner.
According to IOL, Henry Mamothame, spokesperson for the Investigating Directorate, said in 2016 that SAPS crime intelligence had decided to embark on procurement of software systems related to the student protests.
“All the accused are out on bail and they are expected to be back at the Pretoria High Court in October,” said Mamothame.
He said the charges emanated from incidents in October 2015, during the #FeesMustFall protests, when police were dispatched to manage the violent unrest.
“It is alleged that on 21 December 2016, the South African Police Service Crime Intelligence Division undertook an emergency procurement of software systems.
“One of the software systems, RIPJAR, was intended to collect and monitor information from social media platforms about the instigators of the student protests.”
He added that the “emergency” response measures were initiated in December 2016, a year after the protests had occurred.
“Furthermore, they allegedly attempted to procure RIPJAR software from a company not involved in software engineering, but from one that sold security alarms and surveillance cameras,” Mamothame said.
“It emerged that the owners of the competing companies were friends and were in fact involved in cover quoting, supplied to Inbanathan Kistiah by the former husband of the sole director of a company named Perfect Source, a human resource recruitment firm.”
According to the NPA, the R33 million purchase of a social media monitoring tool began in December 2016, using emergency procurement prescripts, with the tool “urgently” needed to address #FeesMustFall university protests of 2015.
“These prescripts are usually used when there is an urgent need – and in this matter – the urgency is undercut by the fact that the Fees Must Fall movement and the protest action around it began a year and a half earlier,” the NPA said.
The Star
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