On Christmas Eve, 2016, there was a breaking story. It’s likely you had better things to do, so here it goes. Robert McBride, the suspended, then reinstated head of the police watchdog IPID, underwent a lie detector test.

Hawks Gauteng head Prince Mokotedi had laid charges against him for a litany of crimes: treason, espionage, conspiracy to commit murder, corruption, intimidation and harassment, defeating the ends of justice, and tax evasion. McBride, private investigator Paul O’Sullivan, Mokotedi’s predecessor Shadrack Sibiya, and crime intelligence’s Candice Coetzee were accused of plotting against President Jacob Zuma and his supporters. McBride’s polygraph was a publicity stunt Mokotedi had agreed to, before withdrawing ‘on advice from lawyers’.

If it’s worth anything, on Christmas Eve news came in that the IPID head passed; he’d never heard of the conspiracy claims before Mokotedi laid charges.

The battle between the police is political and on Thursday IPID fired a shot against the latest occupant of the revolving-door position of SA’s top cop, current head of the SAPS, Acting National Commissioner Khomotso Phahlane. He met IPID investigators in the morning regarding charges against him of corruption and defeating the ends of justice. In the afternoon they searched his house in Pretoria.

News this year will be dominated by political factions, and when political factions deepen, divisions within the organisations under the justice and security cluster are never far behind. McBride’s allies are a coalition of the wounded, police officials suspended or pushed out for what appears to be political motives related to their policing work. Their other ally is South Africa’s private-investigator-in-chief Paul O’Sullivan.

Since McBride returned from suspension, after Police Minister Nathi Nhleko tried to get rid of him, IPID’s efforts in targeting top cops have noticeably increased. On Monday, IPID investigators agreed Phahlane could provide answers to questions regarding the corruption and defeating the ends of justice charges in writing and in the afternoon served a search warrant relating to Phahlane’s upmarket home, but specifically his sound system, said to be worth over R80,000. Several cars of IPID investigators arrived at Acting National Commissioner Phahlane’s home. (Daily Maverick couldn’t get a response from either IPID spokesperson Moses Dlamini or McBride.)

Affidavits in the case nail Phahlane both for allegedly having received improper benefits during his time as SAPS head of forensics, before he started acting in the top job, and for having allegedly interfered in the investigations. It starts with a sales rep called Divan Botha who worked at Sounds Great Audio and Equipment Sales. Botha knew a customer called Jolanta Regina Komodolowicz, who he knew as “Yola”. He then went to work for Yola at a company that was later called Crimetech Laboratories. He said that in 2012 a group of police officers came for a meeting at Crimetech. Phahlane was there and was treated with special consideration. After the meeting Yola told Botha to go to Sounds Great, his former employer, and purchase home entertainment equipment, which cost between R80,000 and R100,000. Payment was made by EFT – by whom, Botha didn’t know. He took the equipment to Phahlane’s house and it was installed by Sounds Great.

An affidavit from Jozua Francois Rosslee, a Sounds Great sales manager, makes things worse for Phahlane. He provides an invoice from 2012 for R80,075 for equipment he said was collected by Botha. The “Description/Narrative” column in Sounds Great’s Nedbank account for the payment features one word: Yola. It’s alleged Crimetech then got a tender with the SAPS while Phahlane was head of forensics. Allegations regarding the top cop’s allegedly dodgy dealings surfaced because of his lavish home, allegedly built for R8-million, yet only registered on a bond at R2-million.

Not only is Phahlane being investigated for corruption, the country’s (acting) leading police officer could also face charges for defeating the ends of justice. In an affidavit, estate manager Chris Jooste at Sable Hills Waterfront Estate, where Phahlane lives, said IPID officers arrived last year asking for information on the commissioner’s house. Shortly thereafter he received a call from Phahlane, who had heard about the investigation from his builder. According to Jooste, Phahlane said he must not hand over any documents relating to the house and anyone wanting to visit should be blocked.

“The acting national commissioner will continue to respect and fully co-operate with any authority competent to conduct investigations in accordance with the laws of our country,” said a statement from the SAPS on Thursday. It said Phahlane had provided IPID with the proof of payment for the R80,000 home entertainment system, which had been transferred from his personal account to Sounds Great.

“It is unfortunate that this investigation is being conducted through the media, characterised by the distortion of facts, disinformation and malice, including an insult on the integrity of the acting national commissioner and his family,” said SAPS. “The parading of the media at the acting national commissioner’s house, while he was being interviewed and served with the search warrant, and the level of disrespect and lack of courtesy by all involved, has been noted by him with disgust and disappointment.”

Phahlane, however, won’t be distracted. The statement continued:

“It is against this background that the entire investigation is considered an assault on the character and integrity of the acting national commissioner aimed at irreparably damaging his reputation and taking his focus away from the execution of his duties.”

Last year, Phahlane released a forensic audit report that cleared him of allegations of corruption. It was initiated by suspended commissioner Riah Phiyega, who will probably lose her job soon after the Claassen Board of Inquiry found she was not fit to hold office. “As made visible in this report, it is an allegation which was found to be not correct and unsubstantiated,” said Phahlane.

Investigator Paul O’Sullivan, who laid both the corruption and defeating the ends of justice charges against Phahlane, on Thursday said IPID was starting to do its job again after McBride returned to work and he was seeing the fruition of his investigations. O’Sullivan was last year, as the saga developed, arrested on a visa infraction and, like other leaders critical of Phahlane and his allies, has faced claims of treason. He said the SAPS was being hypocritical in its claims that he and IPID were using the media to exploit their aims. “What’s good for the goose is good for the gander,” said O’Sullivan, claiming Mokotedi readily went to ANN7 and The New Age when he laid charges of treason.

O’Sullivan, who was instrumental in the conviction of former police chief Jackie Selebi, said he wouldn’t rest until Phahlane and his allies went to jail.

“I’m going to send all these crooks in the police to prison… While I am breathing, they are going to prison.”

Regarding the claim that he can prove he paid for the sound system, O’Sullivan said the top cop should publicly release his bank statements if he has nothing to hide.

Transparency is key in this debate. It’s about much more than a sound system. McBride’s willingness to undergo a lie detector test was typically theatrical, but it clearly defined two sides in the SAPS wars – the transparent versus the opaque. The top echelons of policing have the power to define our politics by deciding who is investigated or charged and who is not. In such an important year in SA politics, IPID’s investigation into Phahlane could have a serious influence on the country’s future. DM

Photo: Acting national police commissioner General Khomotso Phahlane (Netwerk24)