Free ride in SAPS comes to end for fugitive ‘KGB’

Tshabalala joined the elite SAPS unit while still on the run from the law

FUGITIVE crime intelligence officer Morris “KGB” Tshabalala has been fired by the SAPS.

It has emerged that Morris was fired on Friday, the same day he was denied bail by the Pretoria Specialised Commercial Crime Court for allegedly looting the SAPS crime intelligence unit of more than R500 000.

In a letter, Tshabalala was informed that his employment was terminated because he was “convicted of an offence without an option of a fine.”

The letter, dated January 26, was signed off by acting crime intelligence divisional commissioner Major-General KB Ngcobo.

At his court appearance on Friday, the State alleged that Tshabalala did not surrender to the Department of Correctional Services in 1996 to serve a 10-year jail sentence for an armed robbery committed in 1994 in Mamelodi, east of Pretoria.

He was also convicted for the illegal possession of an unlicensed firearm and ammunition.

Tshabalala lodged repeated appeals against that 1996 sentence, but was turned down by the courts.

While on the run, Tshabalala joined the elite SAPS crime intelligence unit, based in Erasmuskloof, near Pretoria.

In 2013, Tshabalala was arrested in a pre-dawn raid in connection with a R3million cash-in-transit heist in Sasolburg, Mpumalanga. He was later acquitted.

On Friday, State prosecutor Chris Smith told the court that when police processed Tshabalala’s fingerprints after his 2013 arrest, they discovered he was a wanted man since 1998.

Tshabalala was then jailed at the Groenpunt maximum security prison and began serving his 10-year sentence for the 1994 armed robbery.

Two years down the line, in 2015, Tshabalala was released on parole. Despite being fired from the SAPS after his incarceration, Tshabalala reportedly remained on the police system and its payroll, receiving a monthly salary.

While out on parole, Tshabalala re-enlisted in the covert SAPS crime intelligence unit. He earned around R22000 and held the rank of captain.

He was arrested earlier this month while checking in with his parole officer in Pretoria. – African News Agency/ANA