Case against former top cop Phalane, co-accused postponed to July

JOHANNESBURG - The case against former acting police commissioner, Khomotso Phahlane, has been postponed to July.

Phahlane and his co-accused are facing fraud and corruption charges related to contracts valued at R54 million.

It's alleged they overstretched resources by splurging on social media monitoring tools and telephone encryption software during the 2015 and 2016 Fees Must Fall protests.

Phahlane and his five co-accused appeared in the Specialised Commercial Crimes Court on Tuesday.

Their appearance stems from fraudulent contracts that were allegedly awarded through a deviation from the normal procurement processes.

It's alleged Phahlane, Major-General Maanda Nemutandzela, Godfrey Mahwayi, Mankosana Makhele and two Durban businessmen, Inbanathan Kistiah and Avendra Naidoo, violated the Public Finance Management Act.

According to the allegations, in December 2016, the South African Police Service (SAPS) crime intelligence division undertook an emergency procurement of software systems that they used to collect and monitor the information from social media platforms about the instigators of the student protests.

“This software was used to encrypt voice calls made by SAPS management at the time when Phahlane was under investigation by IPID [Independent Police Investigative Directorate] for the blue light police tender and under procurement irregularities,” said the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA)'s Henry Mamothame.

All accused are out on bail.