Johannesburg - As forensic investigator Paul O’Sullivan appeared in court on Monday for an alleged Immigration offence, Independent Media can reveal the details behind a criminal charge of corruption he laid against acting National Police Commissioner, Lieutenant General Khomotso Phahlane.
These charges were referred to in mass e-mails which O’Sullivan sent over the past few weeks, in which he threatened to expose the “criminalisation of the police force”.
O’Sullivan appeared in the Kempton Park Magistrate’s Court and was released on R20 000 bail, on condition he not leave the country.
Often a controversial figure, O’Sullivan has had an acrimonious relationship with the police since he successfully investigated Jackie Selebi.
O’Sullivan possesses three passports: from South Africa, Ireland and England.
Read: Did O’Sullivan try to flee SA?
Also read: Hawks arrest O’Sullivan at airport
He was charged for leaving the country on his Irish passport.
The DA’s Kate Lorimer said this happened when he had information that mobster Radovan Krejcir had a hit out on him and he left the country on the passport to avoid detection.
Independent Media understands O’Sullivan is the first person to be charged with this offence.
His appearance on Monday was brief after hours of meetings between his legal team, the National Prosecuting Authority and Hawks officers, including Gauteng Hawks head General Prince Mokotedi.
Independent Media believes O’Sullivan had been gagged from speaking to the media, as part of the bail conditions.
A few hours before his arrest O’Sullivan provided the Independent Police Investigative Directorate (Ipid) with new information on Phahlane.
Independent Media has seen the details of these allegations as well as evidence that Phahlane is being investigated by a task team in the Special Investigative Unit for, among other things, a chemical tender scandal during his time as Divisional Commissioner for Forensics resulting in the alleged wastage of millions of rand of public funds.
O’Sullivan also looked into what property Phahlane owned and how it was possible that he and his wife, Beauty Phahlane – both career cops – could afford a home worth about R8 million in a luxury game farm estate in Pretoria.
O’Sullivan also opened up a criminal docket against Phahlane with Ipid, claiming the top cop’s actions “smack of corruption and cronyism”.
Also read: Strict bail conditions for Paul O’Sullivan
Independent Media has seen affidavits suggesting that Phahlane signed off on a forensics tender for chemicals worth approximately R50m, and then ignored complaints from senior officers that the chemicals were expired when delivered, or were of such an inferior quality they were messing up crime scenes.
In 2011, when Phahlane was Divisional Commissioner for Forensics, supplier Crimetech was re-awarded a tender to provide chemicals, Aeroprint Spray canisters and fingerprint brushes to the SAPS Criminal Record Centres countrywide.
But, according to an affidavit by Colonel Sandragasen Moonsamy of the East London Local Criminal Record Centre, he discovered that many of the supplies purchased through Crimetech were either useless, expired or potentially explosive.
The colonel said the cost of the chemicals, at his branch alone, amounted to more than R200 000, and that he had reason to believe dud supplies were delivered to centres countrywide.
“The state would (also) have to incur the costs to have the expired chemicals destroyed and they can only be removed by a certified waste chemical company,” Moonsamy’s affidavit read.
He also said that, rather than the standard fingerprint brushes, make-up powder brushes were delivered.
According to Moonsamy, these are not delicate enough for crime scene work, and can destroy critical evidence.
After an incident in 2012, where a spray can had exploded at the Lichtenburg branch, Moonsamy said an internal report suggested the products not be used until safety could be guaranteed for crime scene technicians using them.
However, Moonsamy claims that even after that report, Phahlane had insisted that despite the risks, they should continue using the sprays or “suffer the consequences”.
Director of Crimetech, John Henry Deale, denied the allegations.
Deale told Independent Media that he had documented proof that the chemicals had not expired when they were sold, and that it was internal issues at the SAPS that prevented them from being distributed from SAPS warehouses for years.
However, he explained that his company had also conducted suitability tests on the chemicals and that they were still safe and usable even after expiry.
He also said he was taking Moonsamy to court for libel.
Police spokesman Brigadier Hangwani Mulaudzi said that an independent forensic investigation had been conducted by then National Commissioner, Riah Phiyega, and “the report indicated no wrongdoing, the allegations were baseless and unsubstantiated”.
He said that questions about the acting commissioner’s house was an invasion of privacy to which they took exception.
The Star