CAPE TOWN, January 19 (ANA) – The Independent Police Investigative Directorate (IPID) on Thursday, refused to comment on reports that it would raid the Pretoria home of acting national police commissioner General Khomotso Phahlane.
“We cannot comment on an ongoing investigation,” the spokesman for the watchdog body, Moses Dlamini, told ANA.
He added that he could not “confirm nor deny” that IPID was indeed probing Phalane, though it has been reported since November last year, that the directorate is investigating him for alleged corruption.
Media reported that the IPID had obtained a court warrant authorising a planned raid on the commissioner’s home in the Sable Hills Waterfront Estate, north of Pretoria.
The luxury home is not incidental to the probe, as Phalane’s accusers believe it was bought with protection money from mobsters.
Phalane and IPID head Robert McBride find themselves on opposite sides in a highly politicised battle involving senior justice system figures, in turn related to the factional battles within government.
The investigation against Phalane began with a docket opened by private forensic investigator Paul O’Sullivan who alleged that he protected convicted crime lord Radovan Krejcir.
O’Sullivan also alleged that while McBride was suspended from his post in the same wrangle that ended former Hawks boss Anwa Dramat’s career, the then acting head of IPID tipped off Phahlane about the charges against him.
McBride returned to his post after he successfully challenged the police minister’s power to suspend him.
– African News Agency (ANA)
