Former acting police commissioner, Khomotso Phahlane and his co-accused, charged with fraud and corruption, will appear in court again on 2 July.

The Pretoria Specialised Commercial Crime Court postponed the case on Tuesday for disclosure and for it be transferred to the Pretoria Regional Court.

The state was ordered to disclose an outstanding document to one of the defence attorneys by 17 May.

Phahlane, Lieutenant-Colonel Godfrey Mahwayi,  Major-General Maanda Obert Nemutandzhela, Major-General Mankosana Agnes Makhele and businessmen Inbanathan Kistiah and Avendra Naidoo are facing charges of fraud, corruption, theft and contravention of the Public Finance Management Act (PFMA) relating to two contracts valued at approximately R54 million.

Investigating Directorate spokesperson Henry Mamothame said the court appearance emanated from incidents in October 2015, when university students embarked on the #FeesMustFall protests, with police dispatched to stabilise the violent unrest.

“It is alleged that on 21 December 2016, the South African Police Service (SAPS) Crime Intelligence Division embarked on an emergency procurement of software tools or systems. One of the software, RIPJAR, was intended to collect and monitor information from social media platforms on the instigators of the student protests.”

“It however emerged that these “emergency” response measures came about in December 2016 when the protest had started in October 2015. Furthermore, they allegedly attempted to purchase RIPJAR software from a company that was not involved in software engineering, but was a security alarms and surveillance cameras company.”

“It further emerged that the owners of the competing companies were friends, who in fact and in truth were involved in cover quoting. The cover quoting was supplied to Inbanathan Kistiah by the former husband of the sole director of a company called Perfect Source, which was a human resource recruitment company,” he said.

Mamothame said another mobile communication encryption software known as Daedalus, which was solely used for encrypting calls and wiping out cellphone records and messages, was procured through deviation from standard procurement processes, with the contract signed on the same day and payment made on December 22, a day after approval.

“The software was also used to encrypt voice calls made by SAPS management at the time when Phahlane was under investigation by IPID for the “Blue Lights” police tender and other irregular procurement at the time he was acting police commissioner,” he said.

All accused are out on bail.