Hawks head lists high-profile arrests in first quarter and confirms retirement of 'bumbling' top cop

A 185-year jail term for possession of unlicensed firearms, a R600m Sars fraud trial and the Zizi Kodwa R1.6m kickbacks corruption case involving EOH boss Jehan Mackay.

These are just some of the feathers in the Hawks' cap involving arrests and convictions recorded by the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation (DPCI) during the first quarter of the 2024/2025 financial year.

Hawks head Lt-Gen Godfrey Lebeya presented the entity's successes at a media briefing on Sunday.

He revealed the Hawks had investigated more than 18,461 cases involving 752,712 charges and worth more than R1bn from the previous financial year.

“Of these cases, 5,616 involving 11,972 accused [are] before the various courts in the country while 1,788 are receiving attention by the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) in order to decide on prosecution or otherwise. 

“A total number of 673 suspects representing 637 natural persons and 36 juristic persons [entities] were secured before the various courts in the country. Of the first, 489 are South Africans while 148 are foreign nationals,” Lebeya said.

Most of the arrests were made in Gauteng, followed by KwaZulu-Natal, North West, Mpumalanga and the Eastern Cape.

Lebeya spoke of the successes in various categories: serious corruption and organised crimes, fraud, money laundering, police killings, cash-in-transit (CIT) robberies, illegal mining, damage to essential infrastructure and crimes against the state. 

Referring to organised crime, Lebeya said the Hawks had carried out over 34 project-driven investigations from the last quarter and of these only four were successfully closed with 35 arrests effected.

Highlighting a specific case, he revealed the successful prosecution of a Namibian national found with 12 guns at a police roadblock. He received a combined 185-year jail term for a raft of charges, including possession of prohibited firearms, defeating the ends of justice and reckless and negligent driving.

According to Lebeya, the man will effectively serve 20 years in prison.

Turning to successes in cracking CIT robberies, Lebeya said 55 cases were reported and 34 suspects arrested while 27 arrests were effected in CIT-related cases. These refer to conspiracy to commit a CIT robbery, unlawful possession of a firearm and possession of suspected stolen property such as hijacked vehicles used in these robberies.

“There were 19 convictions in eight CIT and CIT-related cases and the convicts were sentenced to a combined period of 288 years while one convict was [handed] a R10,000 fine,” he said.

In the serious corruption category, Lebeya referenced Kodwa and Mackay's arrest and subsequent court appearances, the 46-year jail terms handed to two former police officers as well as a 10-year sentence handed to a Pakistani national.

Notable mentions made in serious commercial crime investigations included the arrests and court appearances of former KPMG bursary specialist Fidelis Moema and his co-accused, the arrest of a former CFO at Star Schools and her family as well as the 291-year sentence handed to a former MMG employee for fraud.

Additionally, a transnational organised crime group was slapped with an 11,052-year combined prison term for “391 counts of money laundering, fraud, forgery, uttering, assisting another to benefit from unlawful activities, acquisition and possession or use of proceeds of unlawful activities” among other offences.

"[Additionally] 10 SA Revenue Service (Sars) employees [stationed at Ficksburg Bridge, Maseru Bridge and Van Rooyen’s Hek Bridge] who had allegedly facilitated 333 transactions amounting to R653,500,455 ... appeared in Lady Brand magistrate's court on June 10 and July 16 on charges of fraud, money laundering and contravention of the Tax Administration Act [among others],” he said.

The matter is set down for trial in November.

Other successes Lebeya cited included IEC commissioner Dr Norma Masuku's arrest and court appearance for R1.2m fraud, the additional arrests of North West health officials in the case against former head of department Dr Andrew Lekalakala and his fraud co-accused and the sentencing of two people to a combined 320 years behind bars for damaging essential infrastructure after they were found with cellphone tower batteries.

He ended the briefing by announcing key changes to the Hawks' top management.

“The component head of serious organised crime, Maj-Gen [Alfred] Khana, will be retiring from office on August 31. He will be succeeded by Brig [Hennie] Flynn ... with effect from September 1, 2024.

“On September 30, the divisional commissioner Lt- Gen [Senaba] Mosipi will retire from office and the successor who is to be announced on September 1 will be appointed with effect from October 1,” he said.

Khana was accused of bungling the Steinhoff case and sabotaging the investigation into Prasa corruption exposed in Jacques Pauw's book Our Poisoned Land.

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