Top cops suspected of graft booted out

Published Dec 1, 2011

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A major crackdown on corruption in the police crime intelligence division has involved the removal of its entire top brass.

The removal of the division’s upper echelon, including Major-General Solly Lazarus, on Monday comes as a high-level investigation into allegations of corruption, fraud, maladministration, nepotism and theft in the division nears completion.

It has been learnt that Lazarus, the Crime Intelligence Unit’s chief financial officer, was suspended with immediate effect on Monday, while at least 14 other senior officers were transferred to other departments in the SAPS.

The transfers and the suspension are apparently in connection with, among other things, the alleged abuse of the division’s R200 million secret services account. The account is meant to be used for the payment of informers and the running of safe houses and operations.

Instead, intelligence officers are alleged to have used the fund to pay for expensive vehicles, overseas trips, expensive clothing, jewellery and property in South Africa and overseas.

Some of these funds, says a source, are also alleged to have been spent on government officials in a number of ministries.

The division has been plagued by criminal allegations and many of its members are being investigated by a special task team from the SAPS Directorate of Priority Crime Investigations.

The shake-up comes as members of the task team now prepare, sources say, to arrest more than a dozen high-ranking officers, including several generals working in the division.

Contacted on Tuesday, Lazarus said he had not been suspended.

“I don’t know what these people are talking about. Please send questions to the media officers and they will forward them to me and I will respond to them accordingly,” he said.

National police spokeswoman Major-General Nonkululeko Mbatha declined to answer questions.

She said: “Certain interventions have been directed at the optimal functioning of the environment. All this was done in the interest of the service.”

Mbatha declined to give any more information.

The shake-up comes months after the arrest of former crime intelligence head, Richard Mdluli, over his alleged role in the murder of his former girlfriend’s husband and the discharge of Gauteng crime intelligence chief, Major-General Joey Mabasa, who received a multimillion-rand golden handshake. Both men are facing charges of alleged corruption and fraud.

The Mail & Guardian has reported allegations that intelligence officers were using the secret services account to run politically driven intelligence-gathering operations against senior politicians.

City Press has reported allegations that Lazarus was behind the creation of an extra 250 posts in the division without consulting the SAPS HR department. It is believed the account might have been used to fund these posts.

According to sources, the Directorate of Priority Crime Investigations has unearthed evidence of nepotism, corruption, theft and fraud in the division.

Some of the alleged evidence includes the looting of millions of rand from several of the intelligence division’s slush fund accounts, said to be controlled solely by Lazarus.

A source who may not be named as he is not authorised to speak to the media, said it was a matter of days before warrants of arrest were issued.

“This goes right up to the top. There is so much rot in the crime intelligence division that the only way to remove it is to remove those running the division,” said the source.

Another source said some of the crimes allegedly committed by the division’s top brass and its senior members included the theft of thousands of rand through false travel and transport claims.

The source said that among those being investigated was a woman officer who allegedly illegally submitted a travel claim of more than R100 000.

The same officer, according to the source, also allegedly ensured that her husband, who previously held the rank of a constable, was promoted to the rank of colonel in the division.

“This promotion was done even though the officer’s husband had been in the police service only for three years,” the source said.

He said the recent purported loss of R2.2m by two crime intelligence operatives, who said they had been robbed in Joburg after withdrawing the money from the division’s secret service account, was also under investigation.

“The circumstances of the robbery and what happened before and after the attack are central to the investigation and form part of the wider investigation into corruption in the crime intelligence division,” he said.

The policeman said the investigation was also looking into how the intelligence division, instead of arresting people suspected of crime, was “actually operating with them”.

“These include the likes of international fugitives such as wanted Czech Radovan Krejcir.”

Questions the SAPS refused to answer:

* Has General Solly Lazarus been charged criminally or departmentally?

* If so, what charges is he facing?

* How many crime intelligence senior officers have been transferred?

* To which divisions or units have they been transferred?

* How long has the investigation into the crime intelligence division been under way?

* Is one of the investigations into the recent theft of R2 million from one of the Crime Intelligence Unit’s fund accounts?

* Are any arrests anticipated? - Pretoria News

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