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
Followers of the Madlanga Commission of Inquiry must brace themselves for another damning testimony of how the South African Police Service (SAPS) was shortchanged into paying private companies billions of rand for the right to use computer software that the SAPS had developed internally.
The allegations of how the police were allegedly cheated out of R50 billion are contained in an affidavit, which former Public Protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane’s foundation submitted to the commission on May 13.
The Busisiwe Mkhwebane Foundation (BMF) has requested the commission, which President Cyril Ramaphosa established to probe alleged criminality, political interference, and corruption in the criminal justice system, to investigate its new allegations in relation to the handling of the software system.
The BMF believed that three companies, which cannot be named as they could not be located for a response, acquired a contract to control the software through capturing the SAPS.
The computer software system in question is called Property Control and Exhibit Management (PCEM), which police use 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 receiving the submission, which the BMF, through its chairperson Shirley Portia Willemse, submitted as part of exposing police capture and corruption.
However, Michaels said it is “the commission’s culture not to publicly discuss its investigations or methodologies”.
In the affidavit, Willemse referred the commission to the late police deputy commissioner Lieutenant-General Sindile Christopher Mfazi’s affidavit and a report compiled by IT specialist Lithisha Frances Richardson, the director of the Harebueng Managed Services.
She claimed that Mfazi, whom she described as a whistle-blower, had established that the three companies had somehow taken over the system, which is the SAPS’s intellectual property.
Deputy police commissioner Lieutenant-General Sindile Mfazi died on July 8, 2021.
Image: Supplied
Willemse wrote that Mfazi had, in May 2018, sought to get the PCEM copyright reviewed, and the contract granting private companies authority to charge the SAPS for using the system was declared fraudulent, so the State could 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, the SAPS entered into negotiations to purchase the intellectual property.
Mfazi died on July 8, 2021, at the age of 59, while the review application was still pending.
“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 look at the fact 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.
“The Foundation further submits that General Mfazi was, in effect, a whistle-blower within the meaning of the Protected Disclosures Act, 2000.
“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 PCEM system's intellectual property ownership.
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 private companies’ directors 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 is yet to respond to questions sent to its spokesperson, Brigadier Athlenda Mathe, on Friday, and the story will be updated upon receiving the response.
bongani.hans@inl.co.za