Private forensic investigator Paul O’Sullivan. (Screenshot)

Private forensic investigator Paul O’Sullivan on Wednesday accused KwaZulu-Natal police commissioner Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi of running a parallel police force and using it to get rid of rivals. 

Under questioning by MPs who form parliament’s ad hoc committee looking into corruption in the criminal justice system, O’Sullivan said Mkhwanazi had “repeatedly talked about informers that were supplying him with information” during his testimony last year before the same panel and the Madlanga Commission which is looking into the same issue. 

“Now it’s not the function of somebody that doesn’t have security clearance to manage informers and General Mkhwanazi had no security clearance, plus he wasn’t working in crime intelligence,” O’Sullivan added.

He questioned Mkhwanazi’s claims that the KwaZulu-Natal police commissioner managed informers. 

O’Sullivan said after Mkhwanazi’s explosive media briefing last July, in which he accused now-suspended Police Minister Senzo Mchunu of political interference in policing, an informer had approached his private investigation company, Forensic for Justice, accusing the police of using extreme violence and of extrajudicial killings.   

In a letter to O’Sullivan, the informer alleged that he had been subjected to police intimidation after he participated in training in KwaZulu-Natal as a police reservist. 

“We didn’t know him from a bar of soap, actually we have a toll free number,” O’Sullivan told MPs.

He said his forensic company had uncovered a Secret Service account used as a slush fund to channel money towards Mkhwanazi’s ‘police force’. The slush fund budget has grown to R600 million a year since the 2012/2013 financial year when the budget was R98 million. The budget increased 500% without any impact on crime fighting, O’Sullivan added.

“We have not seen a concomitant drop in serious crime, in fact we’ve seen the opposite, we’ve seen crime increase over the 13 years,” he said, adding that many police rivalries were centred on control of the slush fund.

“If the committee wants to get to the bottom of the root of all evil in the police it needs to start with the slush fund. Many police officials want to get their hands on these taxpayer funds,” O’Sullivan said.

He accused Mkhwanazi of planning the downfall of senior police officials in a meeting before the 6 July briefing attended by national police commissioner Fannie Masemola.

O’Sullivan told the parliamentary committee that he had received a power point presentation where Mkhwanazi outlined his plans several days before he spoke to the media.

An unknown person dropped off a brown envelope at his office which included R20 000 the day before Mkhwanazi’s briefing, which O’Sullivan said he regarded as a bribe to not reveal Mkhwanazi’s plans. 

Evidence leader Norman Arendse asked O’Sullivan about his attendance at a 2016 braai which reportedly led to the unlawful procurement of spyware gadgets at the City of Johannesburg,

Deputy national police commissioner Shadrack Sibiya has been implicated for his role in the issue while leading the city’s Group Forensic Services. 

Asked by Arendse about his relationship with Sibiya, O’Sullivan said after winning a disciplinary hearing the now-suspended deputy commissioner was subsequently redeployed to the police service.

He said his relationship with Sibiya first came about due to a case involving a Czech Republic refugee seeking asylum, adding they’ve stayed in contact over the years.

He said he had had four or five meetings with Sibiya as deputy police commissioner, where they discussed cases his company investigated. 

“When (Mkhwanazi) made allegations about Shadrack Sibiya … I phoned him and said, ‘what’s going on here, are you involved in all of this, what’s going on?’”.

O’Sullivan said Sibiya denied Mkhwanazi’s allegations and assured him he would prove his innocence. 

“It’s been alleged that I’m his friend, I want to just place it on record that I don’t know where he lives, I’ve never been to his house, I’ve never been to a restaurant to have a meal with him, I’ve never had any dealings,” O’Sullivan said of Sibiya.

“The only time we’ve ever had a meal together was the braai at the house in Bedfordview in December 2016. I’ve had no interactions with him either, other than work related.”

He denied allegations that he was involved in the arrest and unlawful suspension of crime intelligence boss Dumisani Khumalo. 

Police officials have accused O’Sullivan of using the police accountability body, Ipid, to remove rivals in the South African Police Service. He said he was pleased Khumalo had been arrested but claimed he was not involved in the matter. 

“Idac (the Investigating Directorate Against Corruption) obviously investigated and chose to make the arrest but I wasn’t involved in any way, shape or form,” O’Sullivan insisted.