Ex-acting top cop axed
KHOMOTSO PHAHLANE: GUILTY OF DISHONESTY, DISCIPLINARY FINDS
R84 million fraud and corruption case against general, five others is still underway.
Former acting national commissioner Lieutenant-General Khomotso Phahlane was finally fired this week from the South African Police Service after being dogged by claims of corruption for years.
“It is common knowledge that Phahlane has been found guilty of elements of dishonesty, which justify a sanction of dismissal,” the disciplinary finding signed by Lieutenant-General Johannes Riet yesterday noted.
“Lieutenant-General Phahlane is therefore dismissed from the SA Police Service in line with regulation 12 (e) of the Saps Regulation, 2016,”
Police spokesperson Brigadier Vishnu Naidoo said he could not “confirm or deny this as it was an internal process”.
Others were less inclined to be bashful about the matter, such as forensic consultant Paul O’Sullivan.
“Now that Phahlane has finally been fired for dishonesty, some four-and-a-half years after I opened a corruption docket against him, it should be clear to some in the police that when I set my sights on nailing corrupt cops, I do not stop until the job is done,” O’Sullivan said in an e-mail blasting police top brass.
“Despite years of false arrests, detention, torture, seizure of passports, multiple raids on my offices and the kidnapping of my staff, I have stood resolute and will continue to do so until the job is done and the criminal justice system has finally been uncaptured.”
O’Sullivan went on to give a “very big thanks” to the police officers who “did not bend in the face of rampant corruption and in particular, I take my hat off and congratulate Captain Boitumelo Ramahlaha and Colonel Sandragasen Moonsamy, both of whom paid a massive price for being honest”.
“With more people like Moonsamy and Ramahlaha in the police, this country would have a very bright future,” he said.
“The disgraceful manner in which they were both singled out by criminals such as Phahlane and [former Hawks head Berning] Ntlemeza makes one realise we still have a long way to go in cleaning up the mess.”
Ntlemeza, now in the private investigation and security business, was unceremoniously booted out by then minister of police Fikile Mbalula on the grounds he had been illegally appointed by the previous minister of police, Nkosinathi Nhleko.
“Phahlane’s dismissal is not
We still have a long way to go in cleaning up the mess
the end of this corrupt mess. Nor indeed is it the beginning, but it is certainly the end of the beginning,” O’Sullivan said.
“Fifteen years will not be enough for him. What he did makes [Jackie] Selebi’s crimes pale into insignificance. Only life will be enough of a deterrent for any future dirty cops.
“Tell your wife to look after that mansion you built with the proceeds of crime,” he added.
“When you go to prison and it is sold on auction, I want to buy it and sell it on at a profit to try and recover some of the millions you have cost me over the years.”
Phalane’s and five other police officers’ R84 million fraud and corruption case is still underway.