Illustrative image: Couch graphic: (Image: AI) | Cleaning gloves and dustpan. (Photo: Freepik) Parliament’s Portfolio Committee on Police will recall the police watchdog, the Independent Police Investigative Directorate (Ipid), and senior generals for an in-person meeting to discuss a report that found President Cyril Ramaphosa’s head of police had conducted an off-the-books investigation into the Phala Phala scandal. He was subsequently exonerated by the SA Police Service (SAPS) and retains his job.
The events at Phala Phala, involving the theft of US dollars concealed in furniture on the President’s Limpopo farm, have become an albatross around his neck — the subject of an impeachment hearing against him.
After four hours of tough online questioning, during which MPs said Ipid and police generals were being evasive and vague, the committee chairperson, Ian Cameron, said they would be called back for a full in-person meeting to get to the truth.
The committee meeting was convened to discuss a declassified Ipid report, which found that SAPS Presidential Protection Unit head General Wally Rhoode and Constable Hlulani Rekhoto had conducted an off-the-books investigation that violated several regulations.
/file/attachments/orphans/Major-General-Wally-Rhoode_777108.jpg "Wally Rhoode, head of the Presidential Protection Unit. (Photo: DA / Facebook)")
After Ipid and the police explained the report and justified the decision to exonerate Rhoode and Rekhoto, ActionSA MP Dereleen James said, “This entire matter reeks of cover-up and corruption. Why did it take Ipid and SAPS two years to investigate?
“I also want to ask what everyone wants to know: ‘Waar is die couch?’ [Where is the couch?] Was it ever booked in as evidence? A crucial piece of evidence was taken for refurbishment [according to reports]. Was the crime scene swept, and which units were activated on the actual day?”
Couch confusion
The theft at Phala Phala occurred in December 2020 but was only made public in June 2022, when former head of intelligence Arthur Fraser opened a case of criminal concealment against Ramaphosa. The police then investigated.
The President said $580,000 paid for the sale of buffalo had been stuffed into a couch as a safety measure by his farm manager and was subsequently stolen. This was about R10-million at the time, but News24 this week reported it was closer to R15-million according to police forensic analysis. Fraser reported the amount as $4-million, a figure that has never been proven.
“Where is this couch everyone is speaking about?” insisted James.
The police couldn’t answer, saying they only investigated the matter in 2022 and had no information about how evidence was collected and sealed, and how the crime scene was treated. James asked the same question twice more over the next three hours.
/file/attachments/orphans/ED_5826421_187261.jpg "ActionSA’s Dereleen James questions Ipid and police leaders on Wednesday, 13 May. (Photo: Brenton Geach / Gallo Images)")
“If a house is broken into and a person is stabbed on a sofa, that sofa forms part of evidence,” said MK party MP Thulani Shongwe, who also returned to the question of the couch’s whereabouts several times, while committing to a crowdfunding effort to get Ipid and the police to an in-person meeting at Parliament if money was an issue.
“It is said that Rhoode and Rekhoto were found guilty — what led to their exoneration? If Ipid found evidence, on what basis were they cleared of wrongdoing?” asked EFF MP Muzi Khoza.
“We considered the available evidence and decided not to prosecute,” said the police.
MPs were incredulous.
Kidnapping, torture and assault
Asked about a case of kidnapping, torture and assault opened by the family of Nambian suspects Floriana (who worked at Phala Phala) and her brother Ndilinasho Joseph, the police said: “On kidnapping, torture and assault, the alleged victims vehemently denied this happened. They withdrew their submitted statements.”
The siblings, along with Emmanuel David, are currently on trial for the theft.
MK MP David Skosana repeatedly asked, “What was kept in those sofas and mattresses at Phala Phala? You don’t need a PhD to be able to ask, ‘Is Ipid really independent?’ Can we get the photographic evidence [from the crime scene], not from the media, but from the police? What made the mother [of the Joseph siblings] open a kidnapping case?”
/file/attachments/orphans/ED_597817_798251.jpg "MK party MP David Skosana questions the police and Ipid in Parliament on Wednesday, 13 May. (Photo: Brenton Geach / Gallo Images)")
ATM MP Vuyo Zungula repeatedly asked about Ramaphosa’s involvement in and knowledge of the off-the-books investigation, first by Rhoode and later by Rekhoto, who joined him in Cape Town from Pretoria to question suspects.
The Ipid report found that Rhoode did not report the investigation to the national police commissioner, Kehla Sitole, at the time. Instead, he claimed to have been given the green light by General Sindile Mfazi, who was reported to have died of a Covid infection but whose family believe was poisoned.
“What evidence is there that General Mfazi gave the unlawful instruction?” asked Zungula.
Zungula, along with the EFF, brought an application against a parliamentary rule that had brought an impeachment process against Ramaphosa to a halt. The Constitutional Court declared the rule unconstitutional on 8 May, and Parliament must now establish an impeachment committee to properly consider the Phala Phala matter.
“They are blatantly refusing to answer questions,” said Zungula as he tried numerous permutations to get his question about what the President knew and why the deceased Mfazi was being named in the Ipid report.
“I am starting to feel the same as you,” said Cameron, who finally ended proceedings after his committee agreed that Ipid and the police would be hauled to an in-person meeting at Parliament, where cameras can’t be switched off.
“It’s third time lucky: waar is die couch?” said James in a final round of questions, adding, “I can’t move onto my other questions because you refuse to answer, ‘Where is the couch?” DM
Comment
If Wednesday’s meeting of the Portfolio Committee on Police is anything to go by, the impeachment committee formed to hear the Section 89 panel report into the Phala Phala matter is going to be robust and persistent.
The opposition members of the committee were respectful but clear and asked important questions in the public interest of both Ipid and the police representatives. Acting Police Minister Firoz Cachalia conceded that certain police watchdog rules regarding the classification of reports may need to be amended, while he repeatedly emphasised that he had not brought political pressure to bear on Ipid.
TimesLIVE reported that the National Assembly’s Chief Whips Forum has agreed that the Section 89 committee will have 31 members: 19 seats will go to the ANC, DA, MK Party and EFF, while the remaining 12 seats will be shared among smaller parties. DM