A senior police officer attached to the Gauteng organised crime unit allegedly received bribes to lead a raid on an Mpumalanga coal mine and remove heavy equipment and trucks, an action that the mine’s legal team said led to a car crash in which two people died.
The Sunday Times has seen WhatsApp communication allegedly between Capt Itumeleng Phakedi and Johan de Witt, a director of Mamokebe Colliery. The Sunday Times has confirmed the cell number for Phakedi is registered to him.
De Witt’s company is locked in a legal battle with Green Lands Investments over the mining rights at Dirkiesdorp coal mine near Mkhondo (formerly Piet Retief) in Mpumalanga.
The text messages include an FNB proof of payment sent to Phakedi from De Witt. Phakedi thanks him for the “packages”. The amount of the payment cannot be seen in the WhatsApp exchanges.
De Witt tells Phakedi that he hopes the bank accounts he is using are not linked to him. “Just make sure you don’t end up in the commission,” says one message that ends with a laughing emoji and apparently refers to the Madlanga inquiry into police corruption. “Also the accounts you are using I hope they are not linked to you all or police officers.”
Phakedi tells De Witt: “I am still maintaining a lot of officers in the vicinity and we need to pay the lodge.”
According to forensic investigator Paul O’Sullivan, who was hired by Green Lands, the lodge referred to is the Anchors Inn in Dirkiesdorp, where Phakedi was allegedly dined, wined and accommodated by De Witt.
O’Sullivan has reported a case of police corruption, fraud, perjury and defeating the ends of justice to the Investigating Directorate Against Corruption (Idac).
In his statement, he details the night of a recent fatal raid. “Capt Phakedi, accompanied by other police officials … threatened the drivers of two articulated dump trucks (ADTs) and one front-end loader, to drive them to Mkhondo SAPS, at night.
This amounts to the offence of robbery with aggravating circumstances, as the police did not have any search and seizure warrant
— Paul O'Sullivan
“This amounts to the offence of robbery with aggravating circumstances, as the police did not have any search and seizure warrant… One of the mine dump trucks broke down in the road… There were no lights on the truck and no warning signs to indicate the stationary presence of the truck on the road. As a result, a car … drove into the stationary plant and the occupants of the cars were killed on impact.”
O’Sullivan says in his statement that he has intelligence that proves there is a corrupt relationship between Phakedi and De Witt.
“Because this intelligence is of such a nature that it could result in unlawful killing of my informant, it will be provided extraneous to this sworn statement, to avoid the suspects having sight of it at any stage,” he says.
Phakedi declined to answer questions from the Sunday Times, referring queries to Mpumalanga police spokesperson Brig Donald Mdhluli.
“Unfortunately the issue that you’re raising (alleged bribery) and other allegations form part of the bigger issue of mining rights … and we were advised accordingly by our legal team,” Mdhluli said.
“The SAPS cannot comment on the matter that is sub-judice and before the court. However we can confirm several cases registered in Dirkiesdorp SAPS.”
De Witt did not respond to numerous calls and WhatsApp messages seeking comment about the allegations.
Phakedi led his raid on the mine on October 24, removing the heavy equipment and trucks. He only sought a warrant for the raid three days later.
The raid was caught on camera. In one of the videos, Phakedi can be heard discussing who the rightful owners of the mine are and saying he was there to assist De Witt’s co-director, Stanley Mphahlele, to stop mining activities. He says the shutdown had been ordered by the department of mineral resources & energy, but the department has denied this.
“Do you know these people who are mining here?” Phakedi asks Mphahlele, who responds that he doesn’t know them. “That’s all we want to know, they are mining without your authority. We are here to stop the mining activity,” Phakedi then tells the mining manager.
In towing away more mining equipment on October 27, police used the services of a company that was paid a total of R76,000 by Mamokebe Colliery.
Witnesses at the mine, which exports coal through Richards Bay, said about 20 vehicles carrying heavily armed police, led by Phakedi and assisted by Brig Zanele Mavuso of Ermelo visible policing, arrived at the mine. Mavuso was reportedly accompanied by Lt-Col Jerome Cele from the public order police unit in Secunda.
Police are alleged to have acted on a complaint from Mphahlele.
“That equipment was not supposed to be on the road, but after police unlawfully removed it from the plant ... now someone is dead,” attorney Jacobus Krüger, representing Green Lands Investments, told the Sunday Times at the time.
Officials in the office of acting provincial police commissioner Maj-Gen Zeph Mkhwanazi told the Sunday Times police were investigating a complaint from Krüger of SAPS abuse of power and state resources.
Green Lands Investments, which claims to be the lawful operator of the mine, has filed an urgent submission to the Madlanga commission, in which it accused police and government officials of unlawfully interfering and colluding to stop mining at Dirkiesdorp.
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