Police officials and families raked in cash doing business with Saps: Cele

Nearly a hundred police officials made millions by doing business with the Saps between 2014 and 2019 - despite this being illegal.

Police minister Bheki Cele revealed in response to a parliamentary question on Tuesday that 99 police officials, as well as 101 of their family members, did business with the police.

The 20 most lucrative contracts amounted to nearly R6.8m .

A list submitted to parliament shows that one company in particular, Hizoline and Royale Energy, did business with the police to the tune of nearly R3.2m.

Cele did not give details about the contracts, except for the names of the companies involved and the values of the deals.

He was responding to a question from DA MP Andrew Whitfield, who wanted to know how many Saps members and their immediate families were doing business with the police. This includes the direct awarding of tenders, as well as Saps members being directors or members of companies doing business with the police and relevant entities.

Cele revealed that none of the officials had declared the conflict of interest during the bidding or tender processes of the specified contracts, although “five companies disclosed their relationships with family members employed by the Saps,” he said.

The revised code of conduct for public service employees, which came into effect in August 2016, prohibits public servants from doing any form of business with organs of state, either in their own capacity or through companies of which they are directors.

The 2016 regulations provided for a transitional arrangement that enabled officials doing business with the state to either resign from public service or relinquish their business interests by the end of January 2017.