Puleng Dimpane: From Saps CFO to top cop
· Citizen
President Cyril Ramaphosa has appointed Lieutenant-General Puleng Dimpane as the acting national police commissioner, placing General Fannie Masemola on precautionary suspension.
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Masemola’s suspension follows his appearance in the Pretoria Magistrate’s Court on Tuesday, after he was summoned to appear in the court last month.
He is facing four counts of contravening the Public Finance Management Act in relation to a R228 million South African Police Service (Saps) health services tender awarded to criminally accused businessman Vusimuzi “Cat” Matlala.
Dimpane was, until this promotion, the Saps’ chief financial officer (CFO). She has given evidence at two key inquiries into police corruption and misconduct.
Dimpane flags irregular expenditure concerns at Saps
Before parliament’s ad hoc committee, she described the tender awarded to Matlala’s company, Medicare24 Tshwane District, as an “embarrassment“.
She said she did not form part of any structures when the contract was awarded. It was flagged as a possible irregular expenditure in the first week of March 2024 and confirmed as irregular in May.
Regarding the contract, R466 million was disclosed as irregular expenditure. A few invoices remain in the system for this tender.
However, Dimpane instructed her team to stop the payments. When the Auditor-General of South Africa flagged R650 million as irregular within the Saps for the 2024-25 financial year, R466 million of that amount was from the tender.
The remaining amount was from contracts awarded and deemed irregular.
“When you look at the bulk of this irregular expenditure that was flagged in 2024-25, it relates to bids and tenders which are only awarded by the head office supply chain management,” Dimpane said.
Lack of accountability within Saps
Dimpane said there was a lack of accountability and consequence management within the Saps.
“You have irregular expenditure taking place all over and managers appointing people to do disciplinary investigations,” she added.
“When disciplinary investigations come out, the outcome is that a person must receive a written warning or corrective counselling.
“These, to me, are not real consequence management because they do not deter this behaviour. You have people who are doing procurement and breaking the rules of procurement. Is this deliberate to commit fraud?
“This is a culture in Saps where people commit irregular expenditure and there is no serious accountability. This is a concern.”
PKTT disbandment raises further questions
Dimpane also gave evidence to parliament regarding the disbandment of the political killings task team (PKTT) by the then police minister Senzo Mchunu, saying she was shocked that he had used information she provided on financial issues as one of the reasons for the disbandment of the PKTT.
Rather than calling for the disbandment of the PKTT, Dimpane said she had advocated that a study be conducted to determine whether it should be made a permanent structure.
Mchunu, who has since been placed on special leave, previously made reference to the information note when he appeared at the ad hoc committee established to investigate allegations made by the provincial head of police in KwaZulu-Natal, Lieutenant-General Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi.
Mchunu’s disbandment of the PKTT is among other issues the committee is investigating.