By Johnathan Paoli
A plan to acquire sophisticated cellphone interception technology for an alleged sale to the Kingdom of Eswatini involved suspended police sergeant Fannie Nkosi allegedly using SAPS credentials to misrepresent the intended recipient of the equipment.
Proceedings at the Madlanga Commission of Inquiry on Tuesday focused on evidence presented by evidence leader Matthew Chaskalson, who took the commission through a series of communications involving Nkosi and the late taxi boss Jothan “Mswazi” Msibi.
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The evidence centred on arrangements for a demonstration by Czech surveillance technology company InvaSys in February 2023.
Chaskalson said Nkosi signed and stamped an official letter on SAPS letterhead representing that InvaSys would demonstrate an IMSI catcher, commonly known as a “grabber”, to the South African Police Service.
The Czech authorities were allegedly told that the technology was intended for SAPS, while WhatsApp exchanges suggested that the real plan was to sell the equipment to Eswatini.
“The first issue that I want to address is a project that seems to involve in different stages, Mr Msibi, Mr Katiso Molefe, and Mr Steven Motsumi, involved in dealing in grabbers. Grabbers are technology that enable you to eavesdrop on cell phones. And to extract information from cell phones,” Chaskalson said.
The evidence was extracted from Msibi’s cellphone and included exchanges between Nkosi, Msibi and cellphone expert Shaun Jacobs.
According to the WhatsApp exchanges, Jacobs asked Nkosi to place a draft letter on SAPS letterhead or that of the agency he represented.
Nkosi responded that he would sign and stamp it.
The resulting document was addressed to the Czech Republic’s Ministry of Trade and Industry and identified SAPS in Pretoria as the entity receiving the demonstration.
Chaskalson said Nkosi subsequently signed the document, added his police force number and applied a SAPS stamp.
“Sergeant Nkosi has represented to the Czech government that they are, that InvaSys will be demonstrating to the South African police, and that for this reason, InvaSys should be allowed to do so,” he said.
However, the WhatsApp exchanges suggested that the equipment was not ultimately intended for SAPS.
After the demonstration, Nkosi told Jacobs: “We’re on our way to the kingdom as we speak.”
Chaskalson said the “kingdom” referred to Eswatini and that the evidence would show that Msibi, Nkosi and “quite possibly” businessmen Katiso Molefe and Steve Motsumi had planned to sell the technology to the Eswatini government.
“Of course, that’s not what the Czech Republic has been told at all. The Czech Republic has been told that this is a demonstration for the South African Police Service,” Chaskalson said.
The messages showed efforts to conclude an agreement with the Eswatini side, including requests for company details and a contract that would be generated by InvaSys.
Chaskalson said the proposed deal appeared ultimately to have collapsed, with one message expressing disappointment over how the “Kingdom deal” had unfolded.
However, he said the evidence raised a broader concern about private individuals being able to engage foreign suppliers of highly sensitive surveillance equipment while purporting to represent the South African state.
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Commissioner Sandile Khumalo asked what inference should be drawn from Nkosi signing and stamping documents on behalf of SAPS.
“I think the inference is that that’s an out-and-out fraud but it’s a fraud to which everyone involved in that project is party,” Chaskalson replied.
He said the danger was particularly acute when dealing with foreign companies unfamiliar with South African policing procedures.
“A South African looking at that document would think, no, this doesn’t on its face come with the authority of the SAPS to deal with a grabber. But someone in the Czech Republic wouldn’t have the faintest idea whether this was how South Africans issue authority at the highest levels of SAPS or not,” Chaskalson said.
The commission also heard that the technology was capable of intercepting mobile communications by mimicking a legitimate cellphone tower and tricking nearby phones into connecting to it.
Chaskalson described the technology as something that should be tightly controlled.
“This is the sort of technology that should only go into the hands of intelligence agencies who are then constrained to use it under fairly strict legislative controls. But what we have here is private parties passing themselves off as representatives of states and trading in this technology,” he said.
He added that the commission did not yet know whether the technology had ultimately been sold to Eswatini.
The evidence also raised questions about whether private individuals could lawfully possess or use such equipment.
Chaskalson said he was confident that a grabber was not something private entities should lawfully be entitled to use, because the interception of communications was regulated by legislation and required a judicial warrant.
