Feroz Khan linked to R280m Treasury tender kickbacks, affidavit alleges

Police crime intelligence operation support boss Maj-Gen Feroz Khan received “kickbacks” in a R280m National Treasury tender, an affidavit released by the Madlanga commission of inquiry reveals.

The affidavit was filed by commission investigator Tshepo Nyatlo before the high court in Joburg.

The commission, established by President Cyril Ramaphosa in 2025, is investigating allegations of criminal infiltration in the country’s security cluster.

The affidavit opposes Khan’s legal challenge against police minister Firoz Cachalia and the commission. In the application, the police intelligence boss seeks to prevent the commission from accessing information extracted from devices seized without a warrant during his arrest on May 10.

Nyatlo, in the court papers, said chats between Khan and tobacco company executive Mohamed Sayed reveal the duo were involved, through another police senior officer, Lt-Gen Molefe Fani, in a R280m IT contract won from the National Treasury by the company Cyberia.

Fani at the time worked at the National Treasury as a chief director dealing with contracts. Now the divisional commissioner of supply chain in the SA Police Service, he is under suspension due to his role in another SAPS tender, the R360m Medicare 24 contract.

Attempted murder accused and alleged cartel boss Vusi Matlala is a big shareholder in Medicare 24.

Nyatlo says Khan and Sayed used the company Smada “for the Cyberia contract kickback”.

“He [Sayed] then messaged Gen Khan to explain that on the proposed contract of R280m, they would get about R92.4m, or 30%, which would be split equally three ways,” Nyatlo says in the affidavit.

“It is not clear whether the third party who would receive approximately R27.6m from the enterprise was Gen Fani or someone else.”

Sayed sent Khan a copy of a drafted contract between Smada and Cyberia’s Fuad Udemans.

The contract states Cyberia was awarded a contract by the National Treasury and that Smada “forged close business relationships at the highest levels with the government of the Republic of South Africa as well as in the private sector”.

Nyatlo, however, contends the agreement “appears to be a thinly disguised kickback agreement for improper facilitation ‘services’ provided to Cyberia to secure the contract with Treasury”.

Information extracted from Khan’s seized devices reveals chats about other tenders with Sayed.

The information uncovered by the commission remains under investigation, and Khan will be given a chance to respond when he appears at the commission on July 1.

The chats show Khan is a close friend of Sayed, senior executive at the tobacco company Carnilinx, which at some point was accused of evading tax on tobacco.

Nyatlo alleged Khan’s chats in June 2021 showed Khan, EFF leader Julius Malema and Sayed seemingly “orchestrating” the removal of then-inspector general of intelligence Setlhomamaru Dintwe.

Khan is said to have sent a series of questions to Sayed to be posed to Dintwe in parliament by the EFF.

The questions were about whether Dintwe was linked to alleged drug lord Timmy Marimuthu. Khan said Dintwe would lie when confronted with the questions, which would prompt calls for his removal.

Former EFF MP Mbuyiseni Ndlozi posed the questions in parliament.

According to the affidavit, Sayed also forwarded a request to Khan for information about a case opened at the Sandton police station by VBS Bank curator Anoosh Rooplal. The request allegedly came from Malema.

Khan provided a document showing personal details of Rooplal.

Malema and former EFF deputy president Floyd Shivambu were implicated in the VBS scandal by former VBS chair Tshifhiwa Matodzi in an affidavit before he was sentenced in 2023. Malema described Matodzi’s affidavit as untested evidence.

In the same month, June 2021, Khan sent Sayed a notice for his disciplinary hearing, in which Sayed asked if he could send it to “Juju”, believed to be a reference to Malema.

“On September 22 2021, Mr Sayed sent Gen Khan a message of support from Mr Malema in relation to his disciplinary proceedings: ‘I forgot to tell you that Ju called me and said you will not ever resign, no matter what, this is a fight and we will emerge victorious.’”

The references to Malema were not direct chats between Khan and the EFF leader but were through Sayed.

In the same year, Sayed messaged Khan about a tobacco company in East London, Protobac, giving details of their factory and what cigarette brands they manufactured and saying, “I need to f*** them out of sight.”

Nyatlo said this was Sayed’s strategy of knocking out competitors, by leaking information about “illegal tobacco” trading.

Khan’s legal challenge against the commission, Cachalia, crime intelligence boss Lt-Gen Dumisani Khumalo and investigating officer Calvin Khorommbi seeking return of the devices was postponed by agreement. Khan will proceed with litigation in a review application.

Commission secretary Nolitha Vukuza described Khan’s litigation as an attempt to stop the commission from doing its work.

“He is not seeking to preserve the status quo; he is seeking to have the commission’s work stopped in its tracks so it can never use his information to further its investigations and make recommendations based on that information in its final report,” Vukuza’s affidavit reads.

Vukuza argues the commission does not have Khan’s devices but rather a hard drive of information downloaded by police from his devices.

She says the chats show Khan knew about Carnilinx, which has faced allegations of evading tobacco tax.

Vukuza contends that information analysed by the commission shows Khan was involved in improper attempts to manipulate procurement in the SAPS for the benefit of Sayed and himself and that Khan regularly shared confidential information from crime intelligence with Sayed.