Former Public Protector and MK Party MP Busisiwe Mkhwebane's foundation has requested the Madlanga Commission to investigate allegations of fraud in relation to the SAPS computer software system.
Image: Henk Kruger / Independent Newspapers
Amid shocking allegations of fraud amounting to R50 billion, the Madlanga Commission faces a critical juncture as former Public Protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane's Foundation demands accountability from the South African Police Service over its software rights.
This investigation could further expose deep-seated corruption in the national police force and how the SAPS was shortchanged into paying private companies billions of rand for the right to use computer software it had developed internally.
The allegations that the police were cheated out of R50 billion are contained in an affidavit submitted by the Busisiwe Mkhwebane Foundation (BMF)to the commission.
The foundation has requested the commission, established to probe alleged criminality, political interference, and corruption in the criminal justice system, to investigate its new allegations regarding the handling of the software system.
The BMF believed that three companies, which could not be located for comment, had acquired a contract to control the software by capturing the SAPS.
The software system, Property Control and Exhibit Management (PCEM), is used by police for firearms, evidence, laboratory exhibit tracking, property control, and exhibit management.
The foundation alleged that despite the SAPS having conceived and paid for the system, it had no control over its intellectual property for years.
Madlanga Commission’s spokesperson Jeremy Michaels confirmed receipt of the submission. But said, “The commission’s culture is not to publicly discuss its investigations or methodologies”.
The affidavit cites the late deputy police commissioner, Lieutenant-General Sindile Christopher Mfazi, as a significant whistle-blower. His findings, which highlighted the alleged fraudulent takeover of the PCEM system by the companies mentioned in the document, have prompted further investigation by the commission. Tragically, Mfazi, 59, died on 8 July 2021, while the review application he initiated was still pending.
In the affidavit, Foundation Chairperson Shirley Willemse referred the commission to Mfazi’s affidavit and a report compiled by IT specialist Lithisha Frances Richardson, the director of the Harebueng Managed Services.
Deputy police commissioner Lieutenant-General Sindile Mfazi died on July 8, 2021.
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Willemse wrote that Mfazi had, in May 2018, sought to have the PCEM copyright reviewed, and that the contract granting private companies authority to charge the SAPS for using the system was declared fraudulent, allowing the State to recover the money it had paid.
During Mfazi’s review application, the SAPS entered into another oral agreement with one of the companies to recognise the company’s ownership of the intellectual property and consequently entered into negotiations to purchase it.
“The Foundation does not advance any direct allegation regarding the cause of General Mfazi's death,” read the affidavit.
The BMF wants the commission to consider that Mfazi launched the review application, which was seen as a direct threat to the private companies’ interests, as they “had received hundreds of millions of rand from the SAPS”.
“Following General Mfazi's death, the review application was effectively abandoned. No senior SAPS official stepped forward to pursue it.
“His sworn affidavit disclosed information that tended to show criminal conduct, non-compliance with legal obligations, and maladministration,” the document stated.
Willemse said one of the companies that benefited from the PCEM contract had appointed Richardson in 2018 to investigate the intellectual property ownership of the PCEM system.
She said Richardson conducted the forensic investigation over approximately five years by examining “corporate records, source code and metadata, bank statements, shareholders' agreements, tender documents, thousands of pages of email correspondence and WhatsApp communications, court records, and parliamentary records”.
“The result of Ms Richardson's investigation is a damning indictment of a criminal scheme that, she concluded, had prejudiced the SAPS to the tune of over R50 billion.
“Critically, Ms Richardson was initially commissioned by (the name of the company) to prove its ownership of the intellectual property.
“Her investigation led her to the opposite conclusion: that (the company) and its director had participated in a fraudulent scheme to strip the State of its own property,” read the document.
The BMF stated that the Copyright Act mandated that the State should have the PCEM’s copyright.
“If the PCEM system was made under the direction or control of the State, then copyright vested in the State ab initio, and no private party could lawfully claim ownership.
“General Mfazi detailed the factual basis for the State's claim to ownership: the SAPS is an organ of the State; the PCEM system was made under the direction and control of the State; the State exercised control over the making of the computer program; the program was created for and at the instance of the SAPS; the development was paid for by the State; and SAPS personnel provided detailed instructions throughout,” BMF said.
The affidavit revealed that a former SAPS senior superintendent, who was later employed by one of the companies that benefited from the software contract, also stated in an affidavit that the software’s development was under SAPS directive and that the directors of private companies had no knowledge “whatsoever” of the detailed processes and systems.
“The former police officer stated that the system has been conceptualised and written by various SAPS members as far back as the early 90s,” the affidavit read.
The SAPS has yet to respond to media inquiries regarding the matter.