O’Sullivan in ‘crosshairs’
A disbarred attorney, Petrus Viljoen, claims police authorised a ‘special project’ to ‘take down’ private investigator Paul O’Sullivan.
The latest salvo in the war between the Hawks and private investigator Paul O’Sullivan has been fired by a disbarred attorney, who claims a “special project” had been authorised to “take down” O’Sullivan.
Petrus Viljoen claims Gauteng Hawks head Lieutenant-General Prince Mokotedi and his colleagues in the unit, as well as a string of private investigators, attempted to make him party to the project.
Viljoen, currently on trial for fraud involving R114 million, last week laid a charge of defeating the ends of justice against Mokotedi, Hawks Warrant Officer Kobus Vlok, a number of private investigators including Chad Thomas and a number of other alleged “conspirators”.
According to Viljoen, it was Vlok who initially contacted him in November. Viljoen alleges he attended a meeting in Pretoria in December at which he was under the impression that all charges against him would be withdrawn to secure his help in taking action “against O’Sullivan, as he was ‘destabilising’ the country”.
“Vlok told the meeting I was to be his star witness against O’Sullivan ... and that a letter had been issued stopping the prosecution against me. I took this to mean there was a quid pro quo insofar as I would help them with O’Sullivan matters and that the cases against me were gone,” reads Viljoen’s statement.
“I can honestly say I have never seen such desperation as I saw that day to target and nail one person.”
However, said Viljoen, an argument between himself, Thomas and another investigator broke out and he left as it was “clear they did not want me present”.
When approached by The Citizen for comment, Thomas admitted there was a meeting, but for reasons very different to those Viljoen claimed.
“Viljoen is a divisive individual with a divide and conquer agenda to deflect the prima facie case of fraud, for which he is standing trial,” Thomas said.
“The meeting had nothing to do with trying to find anything to discredit O’Sullivan.
“Present at the meeting were seven of South Africa’s high-profile investigators. The crux of the meeting was the lack of cooperation between police, the Hawks and private investigators as a result of a supposed standing order that had been issued to all police stations, stating the Saps did not have to cooperate with private investigators.
“We – the seven private investigators – felt this unfair standing order had been issued as a result of O’Sullivan’s actions against senior police officials, resulting in a collective punishment. Private investigators cannot function without being able to work together with police.”
O’Sullivan claims he is in possession of six telephone recordings made in 2016 that corroborate Viljoen’s statement, transcripts of which will be sent to the Independent Police Investigative Police Directorate.
Mokotedi yesterday confirmed Thomas’s version of the meeting and disputed Viljoen’s claim that he was promised the charges against him would be dropped.
“They [the private investigators] were saying they were very worried because the manner in which O’Sullivan was conducting his investigations is tarnishing the image of private investigators,” said Mokotedi.
He added he had asked Viljoen to recuse himself as some of the private investigators were not comfortable with his presence. –