South Africa

SAPS IN CRISIS

Zuma’s Crime Intelligence cash-splashing looters at 2012 Mangaung and 2017 Nasrec conferences to be arrested

Zuma’s Crime Intelligence cash-splashing looters at 2012 Mangaung and 2017 Nasrec conferences to be arrested
Mangaung, Free State, South Africa, 18 December, 2012. Delegates at the ANC's national elective conference celebrate the re-election of President Jacob Zuma, over Kgalema Motlanthe (centre). Photo Greg Nicolson/NewsFire

The imminent arrest of at least three top Crime Intelligence cops implicated in several heists of public funds in Jacob Zuma’s interest is a tiny green sprout in the fight against SA Police Service corruption.

On 14 December 2012, Sally Evans, in the lead-up to the ANC’s 53rd elective conference in Mangaung and writing in the Mail & Guardian, remarked that the Free State town was awash with Crime Intelligence (CI) operatives.

A source told Evans that the deployment had not been to ward off any “threats” to Jacob Zuma (none had been found) but to ensure at “all costs” that his faction won. 

The contender, former president Kgalema Motlanthe, was a walkover. His presence was more a sign of protest than any real challenge to the rock-solid 100% Zuma cult.

Major-General Obed Nemutanzhela, head of the Secret Service Account (SSA) in 2017

Nine years later and Daily Maverick has learned of the imminent arrest of Major-General Obed Nemutanzhela, who, as head of the Secret Service Account (SSA), allegedly signed off a hot cash budget for a rogue CI unit to splash at the ANC’s 53rd elective conference at Mangaung.

The major-general was also named as a key enabler and suspect in attempts to thwart an Independent Police Investigative Directorate (Ipid) investigation into former acting national commissioner Khomotso Phahlane, now himself facing criminal charges over corruption.

Back in 2012/13, the aim of the about 30-person unit — made up of a rag-tag bunch of moonlighting Military Intelligence operatives and CI members, recruited (with the promise of promotion) by CI’s notorious Captain Morris “KGB” Tshabalala — was that Zuma triumphed.

Tshabalala was a convicted criminal at the time, but what the heck. He was loaded with R50-million prepaid from the slush fund to go round — or so he boasted.

The life and times of Tshabalala can be conjured by a simple Google search, but it is a rabbit hole that we warn might cost you your sanity.

Nemutanzhela had been thrice charged departmentally by suspended and then unsuspended CI head Lieutenant-General Peter Jacobs. 

But the major-general stuck around, like a blackjack on a picnic blanket.

So much so that as recently as between 31 May and 21 June he was the actual overall boss of the Crime Intelligence Division. 

This was in the absence of the recently appointed Major-General Yolisa Mokgabudi (to replace Jacobs), who was elsewhere engaged — though we are yet to understand where.

Then in July 2021 came the “Nine Lost Days” when a well-planned and orchestrated attack on the country broke loose in KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng.

Flames grew and licked, knives and machetes slashed and the sound of gunfire filled the nights as Zuma was hauled off to serve a 15-month sentence. One for which he has since, thanks to Arthur Fraser, received medical parole. 

Zuma today is a free man and still walks, talks, tweets and stalks the hills and valleys of the Radical Economic Transformation terrain, both real and imagined.

President Cyril Ramaphosa finally emerged from the ruins and smoke to admit that “an insurrection” had indeed taken place. 

More than 300 people died, businesses lost billions. Infrastructure was sabotaged and destroyed. It took weeks for South Africa to mop up. 

We are still busy. The SA Human Rights Commission’s inquisitorial hearings are taking place as we speak.

Nemutanzhela had been appointed to act as head of CI for 21 days by the now conveniently late (as we say in South Africa) Lieutenant-General Sindile Mfazi.

Mfazi, who died on 8 July and was buried in the Eastern Cape, has since been exhumed after allegations that he may have been poisoned. Months later the SA Police Service (SAPS) has left the public and presumably the family in the dark.

Pause here and rewind for a moment to December 2017 and the ANC’s elective conference at Nasrec. 

This time it is down to the wire as the Zuma faction’s preferred candidate, Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma, faces off against Ramaphosa. 

Ramaphosa is up against a mighty adversary with flights of acolytes, praise singers and vicious minions with seemingly unlimited, and criminal, access to taxpayers’ money, both through the State Security Agency (as evidence to the Zondo Commission revealed) and the SAPS Crime Intelligence, Secret Service Account.

Major-General King Bhoyi Ngcobo, acting head of Crime Intelligence in 2017

Four months before Nasrec, in August 2017, Zuma appointed his former head of protection services, Major-General King Bhoyi Ngcobo, as acting head of Crime Intelligence. 

Daily Maverick has learnt that Ngcobo’s arrest too is imminent.

In November, with a month to go, Zuma appointed Khehla Sitole as SAPS National Commissioner.

Sitole and two of his deputies, Francinah Vuma and Lebeona Tsumane, were found by a court in January 2021 to have breached their duties by refusing to hand over to Ipid, classified documents relating to a R45-million “Nasrec grabber” grift which went down days before the ANC conference.

In Vuma’s court papers in the Ipid matter, she set out how Ngcobo had driven the purchase of the grabber surveillance device at an inflated price from a supplier who was in business rescue at the time. She suggested that he in turn had been alerted by a “minister in the security cluster”.

A “threat to national security” had been cooked up as justification, while the SSA’s own risk assessment found no threat, apart from ANC members themselves, that is.

Sitole remains in his job for now, with the threat of an inquiry into his fitness to hold office hovering over him.

Major-General Deena Moodley, KZN head of the Covert Intelligence Collection Component

A third high-ranking member who faces arrest is Major-General Deena Moodley, KZN head of the Covert Intelligence Collection Component.

Jacobs, before his suspension by Sitole, had ordered an investigation (on 14 August 2020) into alleged misconduct by Moodley.

Moodley was implicated in 2013, along with Covert Intelligence Collection officials Colonel Dumisani Zulu and Captain Bongani Cele, in the illegal bugging of two Sunday Times journalists and Police Minister Bheki Cele.

Jacobs tasked Major-General KD Galawe to investigate Moodley’s conduct and Galawe completed his report on 24 November 2020 — six days before Jacobs’ suspension. 

Galawe’s report, which Daily Maverick has seen, concluded that enough evidence existed to warrant “an expeditious process in terms of Regulation 9 of SAPS Disciplinary Regulations” against Moodley.

Moodley has also been accused of using taxpayers’ money to fund a personal road trip to Durban and a stayover in a luxury beach hotel. It is also alleged that Moodley registered a black VW Golf GTI registered to CI in his own name and pimped it with blue lights and police sirens.

Further allegations are that in 2016, Moodley and a colleague used a house that belonged to a colleague as a “safe house” and had claimed between R40,000 and R50,000 a month for this.

***

At this stage, we have not been able to confirm the exact charges the three above-mentioned police officers will face after their arrest, but we are, it is clear, spoiled for choice.

The Mail & Guardian’s Khaya Koko reported on Friday that “high-ranking generals” would soon be rounded up.

The Nasrec grabber is just one CI procurement that has been highlighted. The other relates to equipment ordered to monitor the #FeesMustFall student movement, but that was never delivered. 

While it might be tempting to despair at this precise moment in the ongoing flushing of the system, these imminent arrests are hugely significant. 

They are a result of years of relentless and often thankless work by a few out-of-public-view Ipid and SAPS officials who are keeping the organisation together as it tips dangerously towards falling apart.

There are more to go, but this elephant has been significantly consumed. But it still stands, rogue, wounded, with access to public funds. The sooner the deep root canal treatment happens, the better for us all. DM

[hearken id=”daily-maverick/8835″]

Gallery

Comments - Please in order to comment.

  • jcdville stormers says:

    I like the deep root canal bit, but there is a lot more teeth that must be pulled.If you run a parallel with The Mechanism written by Vladimir Netto you will see when goverments think they are above the law ,plus some money loving private companies ,what happens to a country.

  • Charles Parr says:

    When I hear of the imminent arrest of some bad guys I think, well let’s see what happens. If the baddies are arrested they go to court and the NPA’s case falls apart and everyone is free again. Can’t we do better than this?

    • Graham Anderson Anderson says:

      I could not agree more! Remember the ’12’ persons implicated in the July insurrection? Well we were informed on more than one occasion that “arrests were imminent” by our ‘esteemed’ minister of police and by our ‘Leader’ that fails to lead. Absolutely no meaningful arrests and again the ‘low hanging fruit’ being charged with no further action taken.
      It is no wonder the electorate is sick to death of politics and promises – of a better life for all Nogal!!!

  • Anne Felgate says:

    Hopefully this is the beginning
    Hopefully the other bigwig ones will also be arrested before they can do a lot more damage
    And hopefully the good people in the police will stay and make it work
    But hopefully isn’t what is needed
    Good hard decisions need to be made and expedited

  • Chris 123 says:

    But as you say these guys still have access to public funds! How much more will be looted by the time Ramaphosa and the NPA actually do their job and remove them.

  • graeme hall says:

    The Major general stuck around like a blackjack on a picnic blanket.What a picture!! Daily Maverick reporting shining a light in dark corners.Well done.
    Hope we don’t end up like Lebanon ,Venezuela. Impossible to remove those blackjacks.

  • sl0m0 za says:

    The NPA and SAP are taking a leaf from ESKOM – they all three believe in keeping us in the dark…….

  • Abel Appel says:

    We have been hearing of imminent arrests for so long. We have been filled with great expectations when Cyril Ramaphosa was elected. We have been bitterly disappointed. We now see he has feet of clay and seemingly he is not too enthusiastic about having these alleged thugs arrested and brought to book. It is also unbelievable that the chaos and looting of July, which was caught on camera and broadcast to the whole country and to the world has not led to one arrest or a single conviction. This is a country that has gone to the drain. I hang my head in shame. What do we leave for our grandchildren? Those in leadership are a disgrace!!!!!!!!!

  • Abel Appel says:

    I will not hold my breath. We have been hearing of imminent arrests from the time that state capture was revealed. the Guptas escaped from under the noses of our police. They are living the high life like our criminal erstwhile president. These corrupt police officers will probably ensure that these investigators “disappear” or that the dockets are conveniently lost. No doubt they will follow their crooked master’s example by using Stalingrad tactics to ward off prosecution using taxpayers money, no doubt. Our leaders are a disgrace. President Cyril Ramaphosa is the biggest disappointment ever. He promised much but he is just an empty airbag!!!!

  • Graeme de Villiers says:

    It all just seems so hopeless to find the end of the sanity-robbing rabbit hole. So many complicated layers of ‘security’ built in by the perpetrators of these obvious crimes, but as has been said, court dates mean very little and if they don’t walk free immediately, they appeal endlessly and tirelessly until they walk free anyway.

  • Johan Buys says:

    Is there any crook in SAPS that is not a general? Or, is there any general in SAPS that is not a crook?

  • Aysha Salie Salie says:

    How do we stop the the criminal faction from taking over again?
    I don’t hold my breathe when I hear about imminent arrests either, these accused people are adept at dragging the legal process on and on, costing the tax payer ever more money. In the end they just walk free.
    At the moment it feels like the root canal is happening without anaesthesia.

  • Kanu Sukha says:

    So many pertinent comments ! Confirmation that we are in the grips of a criminal state (with the trappings of a ‘democracy’) … which make even fascist states look innocuous ! But then … we should remember that many of those in ‘power’ learnt their ‘craft’ from these !

  • Nick Griffon says:

    And this is the problem with this country.
    I takes 8 years for these crimes to come to light and then 18 years for the useless judgement system to get them to court. And then the courts are malfunctioning because the clowns managed to get themselves hacked.

    I will believe this when these thugs are given 20 year plus sentences.
    All this is just talking. Sorry…. talking is old out here.

Please peer review 3 community comments before your comment can be posted

X

This article is free to read.

Sign up for free or sign in to continue reading.

Unlike our competitors, we don’t force you to pay to read the news but we do need your email address to make your experience better.


Nearly there! Create a password to finish signing up with us:

Please enter your password or get a sign in link if you’ve forgotten

Open Sesame! Thanks for signing up.

We would like our readers to start paying for Daily Maverick...

…but we are not going to force you to. Over 10 million users come to us each month for the news. We have not put it behind a paywall because the truth should not be a luxury.

Instead we ask our readers who can afford to contribute, even a small amount each month, to do so.

If you appreciate it and want to see us keep going then please consider contributing whatever you can.

Support Daily Maverick→
Payment options

Every seed of hope will one day sprout.

South African citizens throughout the country are standing up for our human rights. Stay informed, connected and inspired by our weekly FREE Maverick Citizen newsletter.