Explosive WhatsApps expose alleged plot to rig SAPS tenders

What­s­App messages between sus­pen­ded crime intel­li­gence boss Maj-Gen Feroz Khan and con­tro­ver­sial cigar­ettes boss Mohammad Sayed show how they allegedly conspired to manip­u­late pro­cure­ment in SAPS for their mutual bene­fit.

These are among the allegations contained in documents before the Mad­langa com­mis­sion.

In an affidavit by com­mis­sion invest­ig­ator Tshepo Nyatlo, he outlines how Sayed, a senior exec­ut­ive at tobacco firm Car­nil­inx, sup­plied Khan with par­tic­u­lars of the con­ten­tious R3m UK trip taken by former Ekurhuleni municipal manager Imogen Mashazi in July 2022, in an alleged scheme to “buy influence”.

Some of the other allegations before the Madlanga commission include that Khan and Sayed conspired to use SAPS resources to neut­ral­ise Car­nil­inx com­pet­it­ors.

Other allegations are:

• there were improper attempts to manip­u­late pro­cure­ment in SAPS for their mutual bene­fit;
• Khan reg­u­larly shared con­fid­en­tial crime intel­li­gence inform­a­tion with Sayed;
• they con­spir­ed to orches­trate the removal of former inspector-gen­eral of intel­li­gence Setl­homamaru Isaac Dintwe. This allegedly involved plant­ing ques­tions in par­lia­ment through the EFF in an attempt to trap Dintwe in a lie over his rela­tion­ship with an alleged drug dealer;
• that at Sayed’s request, Khan used his powers in the SAPS to provide Julius Malema with the address and details of a com­plain­ant in a case against the EFF leader; and
• that they discussed, on sev­eral occa­sions, Wiandre Pre­tor­ius, who was allegedly employed by Sayed with Khan’s assist­ance and was instru­mental in oper­a­tions designed to under­mine Sayed’s rivals in the illegal tobacco industry. Pre­tor­ius com­mit­ted sui­cide in Feb­ru­ary after being named at the com­mis­sion in a murder in which police officers were implic­ated.

Com­mis­sion invest­ig­at­ors want Khan to cla­rify his ties to Sayed and the nature of their exchanges.

Sayed, this week, dis­missed the alleg­a­tions, telling the Sunday Times: “I have never engaged Maj-Gen Khan for the pur­poses of ‘buy­ing influ­ence’.”

He denied any collusion with Khan to rig tenders and get rid of Carnilinx competitors.

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