Ex-top cop Phahlane, co-accused released on bail

FORMER acting national police commissioner Khomotso Phahlane yesterday displayed a calm demeanour as he entered a courtroom at the Pretoria Specialised Commercial Crime Court, where he appeared on charges of fraud, corruption, theft, and contravention of the Public Finance Management Act (PFMA) related to a tender worth more than R54 million.

The tender in question relates to the procurement of software referred to as “RIPJAR” for intelligence collection of social media monitoring of #FeesMustFall protests.

According to court papers, the contract was awarded to two businessmen without following prescribed procurement procedures, and its awarding “was not necessitated by an emergency as there was no emergency because #FeesMustFall uprisings started in October 2015”.

Investigating Directorate spokesperson, Sindisiwe Seboka, said: “By December 2016 it was far-fetched to claim a response to the protests as an ‘emergency’. They purported to buy the RIPJAR software from a company that is not involved in software engineering but was a security alarms and surveillance cameras company.

“The owners of the so-called competing companies were friends, who in fact and in truth, were involved in cover quoting. The cover quote was supplied to Inbanathan Kistiah by the former husband of the sole director of a company called Perfect Source, which was a labour broker.”

Kistiah, who is the owner of a Durban-based company I-View Integrated Systems, applied for bail alongside Phahlane and five others.

The other accused were crime intelligence unit colonel Godfrey Mahwayi, acting head of the secret fund of crime intelligence, Major-General Maanda Nemutanzhela, businessman Avendra Naidoo, Brainwave Projects 1323 CC, head of Crime Intelligence in the Free State, Major-General Mankosana Makhele. Seboka said the other software procured was a mobile communication encryption platform named Daedalus.

The case was postponed to December 7.