By Johnathan Paoli
Controversial forensic investigator Paul O’Sullivan has rejected claims that he improperly influenced the Independent Police Investigative Directorate (IPID), saying his last dealings with the watchdog were seven years ago.
O’Sullivan made the comment on Wednesday, during his second day of testimony before Parliament’s ad hoc committee.
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The committee is investigating allegations of infiltration of the criminal justice system, first made by KZN police commissioner, Lieutenant-General Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi, at press briefing in July 2025.al
At the start of proceedings, evidence leader and senior counsel Norman Arendse confirmed that O’Sullivan’s sworn affidavit had been included in the parliamentary record, and that his questioning would focus on allegations of IPID infiltration.
O’Sullivan immediately dismissed the claim.
“It is a blatant lie. I have not infiltrated IPID. My last communication with IPID was in 2017, when I approached them after opening a case against former acting police commissioner General Khomotso Phahlane,” he testified.
He said he had laid a case against Phahlane but alleged IPID initially refused to investigate because the watchdog itself “was part of the state capture project”.
When then executive director Robert McBride was reinstated, O’Sullivan said he “brought IPID up to speed and then left IPID to it”.
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According to O’Sullivan’s affidavit, he stated that he had not infiltrated any organs of state.
“The above malevolent lie was first planted by General Mkhwanazi when he testified before this ad hoc committee, when he called for Parliament to take action against me, failing which the people of the country would take drastic action against me.
“General Mkhwanazi’s supporters in Parliament quickly lapped up his lies and opened the door to two other criminals to come and lie to Parliament, [Cedrick] Nkabinde and General Phahlane,” he said.
Arendse pressed him on his 2016 visit to Phahlane’s estate.
O’Sullivan said IPID investigators, led by since assassinated investigator Mandla Mahlangu, had asked him to show them the property.
“They went in my vehicle because it was bigger,” he said.
IPID officials, he added, requested that he accompany them to obtain building plans from the estate manager’s office.
O’Sullivan described subsequent harassment by what he called a “rogue police team” under former North West deputy police commissioner Major-General Jan Mabula.
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“The criminal conduct of the North West Team resulted in Sarah-Jane Trent being unlawfully arrested and detained in a manner that can be best described as kidnapping. She was held in deplorable conditions for two days and two nights,” he stated.
He further alleged that Trent’s cellphone was taken to Israel for extraction by a company “linked to Mossad”.
He condemned MPs who later confronted McBride using what he says were unlawfully obtained phone records.
“This is a clear indication, not only of the extreme bias of the vocal Mkhwanazi supporters in Parliament, (mainly from MKP, EFF and Action SA), but also the fact that being in possession of someone’s phone records, without their consent is a serious crime, that could see a convicted person sentenced to prison for up to 10 years. I have been reliably informed that MKP, Action SA and EFF, have been working with corrupt Crime Intelligence officials,” he said.
Responding to allegations that he and McBride targeted Phahlane to position McBride for the police commissioner post, O’Sullivan described it as a false narrative contrived by Phahlane and Nkabinde.
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He insisted he played no investigative role after briefing IPID’s task team.
Proceedings continue.
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