Phahlane 'fix-it squad' warned off by Ipid

28 April 2017 - 08:32 By GRAEME HOSKEN
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Lieutenant-General Khomotso Phahlane. File photo
Lieutenant-General Khomotso Phahlane. File photo
Image: RUVAN BOSHOFF

A team of cops formed by acting national police commissioner Khomotso Phahlane - some of its members are suspected of being involved in assassinations, kidnapping and torture - is of concern to the Independent Police Investigative Directorate (Ipid), which is intensifying its investigations into the beleaguered general.

"We are concerned that Phahlane's team members are again abusing their power, this time to weaken the state's case against [him]," said Ipid spokesman Moses Dlamini.

Ipid confirmed to The Times that it has reopened murder, torture and kidnapping investigations into several policemen on the team formed by Phahlane.

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The team's 21 members, who range in rank from warrant officer to major-general, are former members of the Klerksdorp Organised Crime Unit. They are now employed by the North West detective services division. The crimes the policemen are accused of, including the murder of four robbery suspects, date back to 2006.

The men in Phahlane's team, says an Ipid source, are the "go-to guys" when cops at the top of the heap are in trouble with the law.

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Some of them were allegedly used to intimidate prosecutors by former national police commissioner Jackie Selebi during his corruption investigation and trial.

Phahlane announced the formation of the team shortly after what he called "a security breach" at his luxury Pretoria home. The so-called breach was private investigator Paul O'Sullivan photographing his home.

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O'Sullivan is a complainant in Ipid's investigation of Phahlane and his financial affairs.

It has been alleged that the general was bribed to award contracts when he headed the police forensic services division.

He has also been accused of money-laundering.

Phahlane has refused to co-operate with Ipid's investigators.

Ipid spokesman Dlamini confirmed to The Times that the directorate had recently reopened murder and torture investigations into several of Phahlane's team members.

"Ipid has recently become aware of new torture allegations against these officers, which are now also being investigated.

"The murder and torture investigations, like those against Phahlane, were not investigated when they should have been."

He said Ipid was also investigating members of the team formed by Phahlane for intimidating people who might testify against him.

"It is concerning to Ipid that the allegations against these team members, which go back as far as 2006, have not been investigated."

He said that among the policemen's alleged victims were witnesses to the torture, disappearance and murder of armed-robbery suspects.

Dlamini said that the directorate had established that the policemen it was investigating were involved in the arrest and alleged intimidation of advocate Gerrie Nel during his prosecution of Selebi.

Phahlane's spokesman, Major-General Sally de Beer, refused to respond to questions about Ipid's investigations of cases of murder and torture in which team members were implicated.

She also refused to answer questions about allegations that the team's members had tried to coerce people who had deposed affidavits at the request of Ipid, regarding corruption allegations against Phahlane, into altering their statements.

De Beer said all allegations against police officers were dealt with internally and "we will not subject any of them to a trial through the media".

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