By Johnathan Paoli
Whistleblower and former SAPS administrative clerk Patricia Mashale has levelled sweeping allegations of systemic corruption, cover-ups and retaliatory action by senior police and state officials, telling MPs that her 16-year record of disclosures exposed firearm-diversion syndicates, irregular citizenship of a senior SAPS general and a pattern of punitive charges aimed at neutralising her.
Testifying before Parliament in a session repeatedly disrupted by disordered annexures and missing documentation, Mashale alleged that SAPS hierarchy “protected criminality at every tier” and weaponised both disciplinary and criminal processes against her after she uncovered irregularities implicating commanders in the Free State and national structures.
Mashale centred her testimony on what she regards as the most serious wrongdoing: the diversion of firearms destined for state destruction.
She said these disclosures began in 2018, not 2021 as suggested in earlier reports, when she served in the Firearm, Liquor and Secondhand Goods Control (FLASH) environment.
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