Paul O’Sullivan: ‘It’s about the slush fund’ — John Matisonn

Key topics:O’Sullivan claims SAPS corruption centres on R600m intelligence slush fund.He accuses Mkhwanazi of corruption and destabilising justice system.Testimony marred by repeated questions, partisan attacks, and inefficiency..Sign up for your early morning brew of the BizNews Insider to keep you up to speed with the content that matters. The newsletter will land in your inbox at 5:30am weekdays. Register here.Support South Africa’s bastion of independent journalism, offering balanced insights on investments, business, and the political economy, by joining BizNews Premium. Register here.If you prefer WhatsApp for updates, sign up to the BizNews channel here..By John Matisonn.Renowned British-born forensic examiner Paul O’Sullivan believes South Africa’s police corruption battle is really about control of the R600million crime intelligence slush fund, which is used to influence the ANC presidency, win control of SAPS and enrich those who control it.O’Sullivan gave evidence to the parliamentary ad hoc committee investigating police corruption and political interference over two days, following months of controversy over his role in fighting police corruption. For O’Sullivan, KwaZulu-Natal police commissioner General Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi’s July 6 bombshell claims that he is determined to clean up the police are a red herring to distract us.He believes it’s really a faction fight between Mkhwanazi and his allies, the National Police Commissioner, General Fannie Masemola and Crime Intelligence boss General Dumisani Khumalo on one side, and deputy Police Commissioner General Shadrack Sibiya, Ipid and some judges and prosecutors on the other..Read more:.South Africa’s crime intelligence scandal deepens: Nepotism and cover-up allegations expose systemic corruption.For O’Sullivan, Mkhwanazi is no better than the corrupt officers he is trying to take down, and is himself guilty of allowing extrajudicial killings of suspects and corrupt property deals.O’Sullivan’s evidence corroborated an earlier witness who said Mkhwanazi was training young people to do police work without joining the police. They were paid R20,000 in cash a month, with bonuses of R50,000 on completing training.Asked his first reaction on seeing Mkhwanazi’s July 6 media conference, O’Sullivan said: “My impression was that he was planning a military coup. I knew from Ipid he was not the knight in shining armour. “Why the facemasks, the combat uniforms, why flanked by all that staff? His purpose was to destabilise the criminal justice system.” O’Sullivan presented himself as a crusader against police corruption at the highest levels, from the time he played a key role in exposing and bringing to justice former national police commissioner Jackie Selebi. He said he has spent considerable sums of his own money to fight these battles without payment out of a passion to see South Africa’s democracy succeed.His claims deserve serious attention. He has paid a heavy price in numerous assassination attempts that left him lifelong injuries including damage to his hearing and his spine.Yet for all his experience and training as a forensic examiner, former head of security for Acsa’s ten airports, and years as a reserve policeman and lecturer, his performance as a witness was mixed. Several questions that should have been answered easily became sore points, and his intemperate phone messages to police generals threatening them with arrest and worse added to the questions. The first of his two days of testimony came close to farce. Neither evidence leader Norman Arendse, SC, who is also chairperson of the University of Cape Town council, nor many MPs covered themselves in glory.The committee chair, Soviet Lekganyane, took on the role of calming the MPs, given the inability of so many MPs to regulate their own hot tempers.Most of the attacks on O’Sullivan were easy to dismiss as obviously partisan distractions. But O’Sullivan, as a professional witness –a certified forensic examiner, anti-crime campaigner, long-time reserve police officer – was unable to summarise or focus on the key issues. The most important thing South Africa needed to know from him was what his allegations were against Mkhwanazi, widely seen as a national saviour, which he rejected.Both Arendse and O’Sullivan used the first day of their two-day encounter badly. Arendse repeated questions already answered, while O’Sullivan used up valuable time on less relevant historical matters. Arendse acknowledged the pain O’Sullivan had been put through for his battle against crooks when few MPs did. But ultimately he failed the committee. He was not immune from wasting hours of government time re-asking about qualifications that had already been explained, while failing to get quickly to the core issues of police corruption and political interference.O’Sullivan completed school in Ireland, and earned a qualification in engineering and electronics that he said is considered qualifying, but short of a degree.He has never done a long-term course in crime fighting, but he has done numerous short courses here and in the US, has obviously found a talent for it, and passed several forensic examiners’ exams. The part of his CV he hoped to avoid disclosing was his work for British Military Intelligence in his 20s, when he worked in counterterrorism against the Irish Republican Army.He knew this would be damaging, and it was. He forcefully denied ever working for any foreign government in South Africa. When he described his journey to gather evidence against Jackie Selebi, which ultimately led to his conviction, MKP MPs were endlessly scrolling, their deep lever arch files barely touched..Read more:.UPDATE: Police Minister Senzo Mchunu denies ties to tenderpreneur at heart of explosive SAPS corruption scandal.Notably, 31 years after entrenching 11 official languages, Parliament still does not have simultaneous translation. This makes it easy for anyone wanting to manipulate the proceedings to switch out of English, which ensures that the speaker’s adversaries are driving blind.

Paul O’Sullivan: ‘It’s about the slush fund’ — John Matisonn

Key topics:

Related Stories