Leaders from the South African Police Service (SAPS) were sent packing from parliament on Wednesday after spending four hours stonewalling over why one of the people at the centre of the Phala Phala farmgate drama had been cleared of wrongdoing.
During a four-hour meeting between the police portfolio committee, the SAPS and police watchdog body Ipid, MPs were left none the wiser as to why SAPS major-general Wally Rhoode had been found not guilty in a disciplinary hearing stemming from adverse findings against him in 2024.
Rhoode is President Cyril Ramaphosa’s number one bodyguard, as head of the SAPS’ Presidential Protection Service.
This was after top officials the SAPS, led by acting police commissioner Lt-Gen Puleng Dimpane, dug in their heels, repeatedly ignoring direct questions from MPs as to why and how Rhoode had been cleared.
This was after Ipid, in its 2024 report, made at least four adverse findings against Rhoode over his “illegal” handling of the theft of $500,000 at Ramaphosa’s Phala Phala farm in Limpopo, including his failure to report the crime at a police station, conducting an unlawful investigation into the matter and unlawfully using government resources.
Despite all of this, the SAPS has found no wrongdoing on his part and MPs on Wednesday wanted answers.
But SAPS bosses simply stonewalled, repeatedly throwing “generalities” at MPs.
We are repeatedly asking the same questions because we are not getting the answers. We are being generalised. So chair, this is not effective, the virtual platform for this meeting is not working. Right now, we are just playing, we are just passing time.
— MK Party MP Vusi Shongwe.
“On the question of whether there was evidence led and what was the defence ... according to the SAPS disciplinary regulations of 2016, the employer will put the evidence before the presiding officer, and the presiding officer, guided by the principles of neutrality, impartiality, independence and fairness, will then on the balance of probability, check the facts before him and based on those facts he will come to a verdict, and this is exactly the process that was followed involving Gen Rhoode,” said Lt-Gen Michael Mohlala.
This did not sit well with MPs, who argued that the whole affair smacked of a “cover-up”.
They also slammed the SAPS’s disciplinary regulations in which senior managers are allowed to preside over their counterparts’ disciplinary hearings.
Acting police minister Firoz Cachalia conceded that the SAPS’s disciplinary framework may be flawed and should be subjected to a review.
During the tense and lengthy virtual meeting, Dimpane insisted that Rhoode had not enjoyed special treatment or favours.
But MPs were not buying it, telling the SAPS bosses that they were playing games and should come back to parliament for a physical meeting with real answers.
“We are repeatedly asking the same questions because we are not getting the answers. We are being generalised. So chair, this is not effective, the virtual platform for this meeting is not working. Right now, we are just playing, we are just passing time,” said MK Party MP Vusi Shongwe.
“What were the issues that led to them not being found guilty … one of the questions was that if they were not found guilty, was there any accountability with regard to the case that was opened,“ said the ANC’s Dikeledi Direko.
She asked what the SAPS had found that was different to the conclusions of Ipid.
Just after 6pm, following two hours of deliberations, committee chairperson Ian Cameron closed the meeting, ruling that the entities will be called to a physical meeting at a date to be determined.
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