Police stand guard at the University of Witwatersrand during the #FeesMustFall movement. The three senior officers used the need to spy on students to allegedly defraud the state. Photo Delwyn Verasamy
Lieutenant Colonel Godfrey Mahwayi, Major General Maanda Nemutanzhela and Major General Mankosana Makhele – the crime intelligence officers facing R54-million procurement fraud and corruption charges – have been suspended from the police service.
The three officers, along with former national commissioner Khomotso Phahlane, are accused of enabling fraud in the December 2016 purchase of spyware to monitor students protesting under the #FeesMustFall banner.
Phahlane, who was the accounting officer at the time of the purchase, approved a deviation request from Nemutanzhela for the “emergency” procurement of the spy equipment, which followed the alleged fictitious quotations submitted by Perfect Source and Brainwave, which trades as I-View Integrated Systems.
Inbanathan Kistiah, Brainwave’s director, and Avendra Naidoo, who “fraudulently” claimed to be acting on Perfect Source’s behalf, are the other accused in the matter.
Colonel Athlenda Mathe, the spokesperson for the South African Police Service, confirmed to the Mail & Guardian on Wednesday that General Fannie Masemola, the national commissioner, had suspended the three alleged crooked cops for “their alleged involvement in tender fraud”.
Mathe said the suspensions followed Mahwayi, Nemutanzhela and Makhele appearing in the Pretoria specialised commercial crimes court on 21 September on charges of fraud, corruption, theft and contravening the Public Finance Management Act.
“After receiving a report on these charges from the Investigating Directorate, the national commissioner followed due process and moved to place the three officers on precautionary suspension with immediate effect pending a departmental investigation.
“The trio’s arrest is allegedly in connection with the irregular procurement of a social media monitoring and mobile encryption software,” Mathe said.
The Investigating Directorate is a division of the National Prosecuting Authority.
Sindisiwe Seboka, spokesperson for the directorate, said the unit would not comment on the suspension of the accused.
According to investigative documents seen by M&G, Kistiah’s I-View set a price of about R33.8-million for the equipment, while Perfect Source had set its price at more than R45.7-million.
I-View then reduced its tendered price and received an almost R1.2‑million-a-month contract, which would have amounted to nearly R8.4‑million over seven months. Instead, the company ended up raking in more than R54.2-million, according to financial records seen by the M&G.
Following the arrests, Investigating Directorate head Andrea Johnson called the fraud case “seminal” in dealing with “corruption and state capture”.
“It is also dealing with the lack of accountability, which to date has undermined the legitimacy of the law and shows that the wheels of justice are turning and impunity is no longer a given.
“On the contrary, the rule of law is the most important protection of the weak against the whims of the powerful and it is what stands between us and tyranny,” Johnson said.
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