A bungled drugs bust involving a 715kg cocaine stash said to be worth R300m has rocked the crisis-ridden police crime intelligence unit, with startling claims being made against the division’s head, Lt-Gen Dumisani Khumalo.
He has now taken the extraordinary step of trying to fire his accuser, Maj-Gen Feroz Khan, the head of counter-security at crime intelligence, accusing him of defeating the ends of justice during the drug bust in 2021.
Khan meanwhile hit back this week with an affidavit making damaging claims against Khumalo, as part of an urgent application to the labour court to halt disciplinary process. Khumalo has denied the allegations against him.
“I can draw no conclusion other than that I am being targeted and victimised by certain members within SAPS because of certain investigations currently being conducted by me,” Khan said.
The high-level feud is the latest setback in attempts to salvage the crime intelligence unit, which should be a vital tool in the arsenal against organised crime and extortion gangs, but which has been rocked by scandals for years.
The Khan-Khumalo row is part of the fall out from the 2021 bust, in which the Hawks, crime intelligence and Gauteng provincial traffic police were involved in a stand-off at the scene where 550 bricks of cocaine were discovered.
The Sunday Times can reveal that several complaints or “protected disclosures” have been made against Khumalo in recent months, including allegations that he obtained a security clearance in a fraudulent manner, flouted internal police regulations and has been guilty of criminal conduct.
Another senior officer in crime intelligence, Brig Tiyani Hlungwani, the section head of finance, administrative services and the secret service account, has also dragged Khumalo to court on the grounds of being victimised for making protected disclosures.
In his affidavit, Khan says that on the morning of July 9 2021 he received a call from a sergeant in the Gauteng highway patrol asking for urgent assistance at a warehouse in Aeroton, south Johannesburg.
The sergeant said there was a problem over a container on a truck parked in the warehouse, which was suspected of containing drugs.
Khan says that when he arrived, he became suspicious about what was going on.
“There were many police members on the scene. I saw a horse and trailer with a black Nissan bakkie next to it. I also saw that the bakkie was fully loaded with black bags. I soon understood that the people who claimed to be police officers had removed the black bags from the truck and placed [them] onto the Nissan bakkie. They did this without declaring the scene a crime scene, without contacting a photographer or anybody from forensics,” he said.
Khan says he contacted senior officers of crime intelligence and the Hawks to confirm that the drug seizure was an official operation, but they told him they knew nothing about it. The driver of the bakkie, an officer from crime intelligence, said he had been asked by a friend in the Gauteng traffic police to accompany him.
But the chief director of the Gauteng traffic police denied having been told about the operation, Khan says.
“My further questioning of these members provided me with more questions than answers and I decided that the provincial head of the DPCI [Directorate of Priority Crime Investigations, or Hawks], Gauteng, Maj-Gen Kadwa, should attend the scene. I also called Maj-Gen Lekalakala, who is the provincial head of crime intelligence, Gauteng, and requested that he attend the scene.”
The incident ended with the arrest of two members of the police, a traffic official and one civilian on charges of drug dealing and other offences.
Khumalo’s action against Khan seems to contradict a June 28 memo from the National Prosecuting Authority which said: “The state will not be able to prove intention to defeat or obstruct the course of justice [on the part of Khan].” The NPA dismissed the case as having “emanated from a trifling internal dispute between different law enforcement units, which warrants mediation and not prosecution”.
I can draw no conclusion other than that I am being targeted and victimised by certain members within SAPS because of certain investigations currently being conducted by me
— Maj-Gen Feroz Khan
But the Independent Police Investigative Directorate (Ipid), acting on a complaint from one officer, conducted its own investigation into Khan’s intervention.
According to a notice of “expeditious process” and an Ipid report filed as part of Khumalo’s court action, Khan was accused of interfering with the seizure of drugs, which would constitute defeating the ends of justice.
The Ipid report, issued in June, recommended disciplinary steps against him as well as four other senior officials, including Kadwa, for defeating the ends of justice.
“The police arrested their colleagues who made a huge drug bust. Two generals namely Maj-Gen Khan and Kadwa attended the crime scene, however they were unable to explain their role at the crime scene,” the report said.
“Gen Kadwa indicated that he did not do anything at the crime scene as he alleged that he remained in his car, and later got a report that officers were arrested.”
In his affidavit, Khan accuses Khumalo of using the “expeditious process” notice to intimidate him.
Typically the process is initiated in cases in which members of the police are caught red-handed in the commission of a crime, as a way of minimising their ability to bring the police into disrepute. The process has been criticised by unions, who argue that it is abused to remove members from the service.
Khan says he made protected disclosures to his superiors about the investigations that had sparked animosity towards him from his colleagues.
“The disclosures made by me constitute protected disclosures in terms of the Protected Disclosures Act [PDA] ... The protected disclosures were made by me prior to the notice [of expeditious process]. The expeditious process instituted against me constitutes an occupational detriment, and I believe, is in retaliation for the disclosures made by me,” he says.
Among the disclosures, he says, was that Khumalo was involved in acts of criminality, abused the secret service fund and was guilty of nepotism. “It is important to note that in the past and on numerous occasions, I was instructed by Lt-Gen Khumalo to cease with the investigations. I have refused to comply with the instructions which, in my view, were improper.”
In the affidavit Khan describes his investigations into Khumalo as “sensitive”.
However, Khumalo, in his responding papers, denies Khan’s claims and challenges him to prove the allegation that he ordered Khan to stop certain investigations.
“I deny that the applicant is being victimised by the respondents due to his alleged investigations that he was allegedly conducting.
“I have no idea what investigations the applicant referred to. I further deny that he had ever made any disclosures in terms of [the PDA], let alone prior to him receiving the notice of the disciplinary hearing ... Any instructions to the applicant to stop an investigation ought to have been written down in the respective dockets,” says Khumalo.
“The applicant’s allegation that the respondents were aware of the allegations against him as investigated by Ipid, as far back as three years ago, and that the disciplinary process had been delayed deliberately by the respondents, is false,” he says.
Insiders at crime intelligence said that the rift between Khan and Khumalo began when questions were raised about Khumalo’s security clearance.
Khan’s labour court case will be heard on November 5.
Hlungwani, meanwhile, has brought a court application, which will also be heard next month, to interdict a board of inquiry into his fitness to hold office.
Khumalo instituted the inquiry on Hlungwani who was removed from his post five years ago.
Hlungwani alleges in his court papers that he is being targeted because he made protected disclosures against Khumalo, the then minister of police Bheki Cele, and the then divisional commissioner for crime intelligence Peter Jacobs. He says he further drew Khumalo’s ire when he made a protected disclosure about his expedited security clearance — Khumalo obtained it within five days.
“This resulted in an investigation by the inspector-general of intelligence which found Gen Khumalo’s security clearance to be fraudulent and recommended withdrawal, which renders him ineligible to be divisional commissioner for crime intelligence,” Hlungwani says.
“I opened a criminal case of fraud, corruption and contravention of the Rica [Regulation of Interception of Communications Act] against ... Cele and ... Jacobs for a R102m procurement of grabbers (used to intercept communications).
“I was then removed from my position in April 2019 after refusing to endorse the procurement on the basis that it was not in line with procurement laws and was in contravention of the Rica,” says Hlungwane.
He made a disclosure on December 14 2017 in which he alleged that grabbers had been procured as part of a scheme to influence the 2017 ANC Nasrec elective conference.
He says the Investigative Directorate of the NPA is investigating the procurement of grabbers and provided a case number.
Hlungwani says Khumalo cut his salary and suspended his medical aid. He was notified this month that he has to attend a board of inquiry to “determine my fitness” to hold office. According to the notice, he is accused of being absent without leave for more than a month.
Hlungwane wants to interdict the inquiry as he argues that Khumalo is using it “to circumvent the hearings relating to my unfair labour practice”. Hlungwani is locked in a legal dispute with his employer over what he says was unfair labour practice.
Police spokesperson Brig Athlenda Mathe said: “The SAPS doesn’t usually comment on matters in the intelligence environment and will therefore decline to comment. This is an internal departmental matter and is being dealt with accordingly.”
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