The man in control of the coffers of the police’s Crime Intelligence Unit has been suspended and three other generals have been redeployed.
This follows a breakthrough in the investigation into more than R30 million missing from the unit’s secret services account.
And two police officers have since been put in the Hawks’ witness protection programme, after turning State witness against the generals and spilt the beans on their alleged activities.
Chief financial officer General Solly Lazarus, who has been running the secret service’s slush fund, was served with a notice of his suspension on Monday.
The head of the division’s operational intelligence analysis, Major-General Mark Hankel; the acting divisional commissioner of crime intelligence, Major-General Vele Matshatshe; and Major-General Khosi Sinthumile were redeployed to other units outside crime intelligence.
The three redeployed officers have to report to head office every morning.
On Monday night, Hawks spokesman Colonel McIntosh Polela would not comment, referring all queries to national police spokeswoman Major-General Nonkululeko Mbatha.
Mbatha confirmed Lazarus’s suspension and the redeployment of the three officers.
Later, in a statement, she said: “Certain interventions have been directed at the optimal functioning of the environment. All this was done in the interest of the service.”
The slush fund, sponsored by the Treasury, gets between R200m and R400m a year. It’s used to cover covert operations and safe houses, and to pay informers.
But police sources told The Star on Monday night that houses, vehicles and other luxury items were being bought for senior police officials living a high life, and “loans” were given to operatives favoured by the leadership.
Former crime intelligence boss Mulangi Mphego has also been linked to recent mismanagement and was allegedly still receiving monthly instalments from the fund of up to R100 000.
The two officers said to have helped the Hawks’ investigation and who turned State witness were arrested last month and appeared in the Pretoria Commercial Crime Court on charges of fraud and corruption.
One of the officers in protection, a colonel who is the supply-chain manager for the fund, was charged over his involvement in a R90 000 discount solicited last year to pay off a shortfall on a private car belonging to former crime intelligence boss Richard Mdluli.
All four generals are said to be close to Mdluli, who faces charges of murder and defeating the ends of justice for his alleged involvement in the 1999 murder of Oupa Ramogibe, who married his former lover.
The move also follows the recent dismissal of former Gauteng crime intelligence boss Major-General Joey Mabaso, who was given a golden handshake when he was discharged from the unit.
The Hawks, who have been investigating large-scale mismanagement in the unit over the past two years, are probing how at least R30m has been taken out of the fund since 2007.
But police sources say the figure is not complete, and investigators are still tallying up the money spent.
Part of the probe is into allegations of mismanagement in the unit, including a list of more than 250 posts allegedly created by Lazarus and Mdluli without consulting human resources, then advertising them without mentioning them as SAPS posts. - The Star