Former public protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane says a recently declassified Independent Police Investigative Directorate (Ipid) report into the handling of the Phala Phala farm theft supports her long-standing claims that senior police officials acted improperly in their response to the scandal.
The report recommended disciplinary action against Presidential Protection Service head Major General Wally Rhoode and Constable Hlulani Rekhoto after finding failures to follow police procedures and legal obligations in the handling of the theft of foreign currency from President Cyril Ramaphosa’s Limpopo farm in 2020.
Among Ipid’s findings were that no criminal case docket was initially opened after the theft and that members of the Presidential Protection Service became involved in efforts to trace the missing money outside ordinary policing processes.
The report also examined allegations relating to the handling and apprehension of suspects linked to the theft.
The report further found that police failed to report the theft at a police station, in line with SAPS procedures; used members of the Presidential Protection Unit to investigate the president’s private business matter; allegedly kidnapped and unlawfully interrogated suspects connected to the theft; failed to report prescribed offences under the SAPS Act; allegedly bribed suspects to conceal events linked to the theft; and conducted investigations outside the scope of their legal authority.
Ipid identified Rhoode and Rekhoto as the SAPS members most closely involved in the alleged cover-up of the theft. In his statement to investigators, Rhoode admitted that the criminal investigations fell outside the scope of his official duties.
Mkhwebane said the findings confirmed concerns previously raised by her office during its own investigation into the Phala Phala matter.
“All the evidence we gave to Ipid was that the police did their work in an unlawful way,” she told the Mail & Guardian.
“They even travelled to Namibia to arrest those people, to beat them and it’s very gruesome what they did.”
Mkhwebane said her office referred aspects of the matter to Ipid because the Public Protector Act allowed her office to refer matters to other institutions where appropriate.
“During an investigation, when you find that another institution can investigate the matter, you refer it. Hence, we referred it to Ipid to deal with those police officials,” she said.
Mkhwebane has long alleged that Ramaphosa’s administration targeted her impeachment in an effort to blunt scrutiny of the Phala Phala scandal, an allegation the president and his allies have consistently denied.
Ramaphosa suspended Mkhwebane in June 2022, days after she sent him a list of 31 questions relating to the Phala Phala investigation. She was later impeached by parliament in 2023, after findings of misconduct and incompetence following adverse court rulings during her tenure as public protector.
Mkhwebane, now an uMkhonto weSizwe party member and MPL in Mpumalanga, said she believed the handling of the Phala Phala matter raised serious accountability concerns.
“A president is a constitutional being and the president must account,” she said. “We are not saying he must be removed or impeached but let him appear before the ad hoc committee and account.”
She also criticised the 14-month delay in the Constitutional Court judgment relating to parliament’s handling of the Phala Phala matter.
Mkhwebane said the delay undermined accountability, although she did not provide evidence for allegations that the judiciary was reluctant to rule against the president.
On 8 April, the court said a judgment on whether parliament erred in its handling of the Phala Phala matter would be delivered in a month.
The presidency had not responded to requests for comment at the time of publication.
The former public protector said President Cyril Ramaphosa sanctioned the police’s illegal conduct during their investigation into the Phala Phala theft
