By Johnathan Paoli
Captain Samuel Ramalepe, flanked by Colonel Darius Ramolobe and Captain Edwin Malatjie, testified on behalf of the trio on Wednesday, saying their repeated attempts to report corruption, maladministration and criminality within the SAPS Forensic Science Services (FSS) were ignored for more than a decade.
Instead, they alleged, senior management — including former Acting National Commissioner Lt-Gen Khomotso Phahlane — presided over a system that punished whistleblowers rather than addressing their complaints.
“We are encouraged to whistleblow on corruption. But when we report on corruption, we are not protected,” Ramalepe told the committee.
Evidence leader and senior counsel Norman Arendse walked Ramalepe through a long chronology of complaints first raised in 2010, when the officers, then stationed in the Questioned Document Section (QDS), reacted to a Pretoria News article about drug thefts at the SAPS Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL).
Ramalepe recalled that staff gathered at the biology section to demand answers from management.
Instead, police were deployed and all employees present, including the three men, were arrested and detained at Sunnyside Police Station.
Charges were later withdrawn without explanation.
By late 2011, the officers met the newly appointed Divisional Commissioner of FSS, Lt-Gen Phahlane, to formally raise what they termed “systematic corruption” in the division.
Their list included drug thefts, the disappearance of rhino horn exhibits, sexual harassment complaints, irregular payments, irregular appointments, and widespread maladministration.
According to their testimony, Phahlane responded that he “could not open a can of worms”.
The officers say they recorded the meeting; while the committee said it would request the audio.
Ramalepe said the 2011 engagement was followed by further attempts to escalate concerns.
In April 2012, the trio submitted complaints to the then-Acting National Commissioner, Lt-Gen Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi, who referred the matter to senior SAPS management; however no progress followed.
Subsequent escalations, to Lt-Gen Bonang Magwenya, Lt-Gen Godfrey Lebeya, and later to National Commissioners Bheki Cele, Riah Phiyega, Khomotso Phahlane (in his later role), Khehla Sitole, and Fannie Masemola, yielded no tangible outcomes.
In parallel, the officers’ union (POPCRU) publicly pressured SAPS leadership.
In reaction, Phahlane issued an internal memo labelling Ramalepe and his colleagues “ill-disciplined” and accusing them of negatively influencing members.
Soon thereafter, Phiyega appointed law firm Ernst and Young, subcontracting to CPN Forensics, to conduct an independent investigation.
The CPN report, completed in 2014, confirmed several procurement irregularities, human-resources abuses and concerns about the quality of chemicals supplied to the FSL.
Ramalepe told MPs the report was 190 pages, but Arendse pointed out that the version before the committee was incomplete, with key findings and recommendations, located between pages 166 and 185 in the complete version, were missing from the parliamentary copy.
Although the report contained no explicit “findings against Phahlane” by name, Ramalepe emphasised the direct link: “If you check the report, there is a finding of an irregular appointment for Brigadier Morapedi. The chairperson of that panel was General Phahlane.”
Despite this, SAPS issued a public statement when Phahlane became Acting National Commissioner in 2016, claiming he had been “cleared” by the report.
Tension with Phahlane escalated further in 2013 when he filed a R350,000 defamation lawsuit against the whistleblowers.
They eventually secured senior counsel, including senior counsel Tembeka Ngcukaitobi and Dali Mpofu, and obtained leave to appeal after losing in the High Court.
The matter remains unresolved.
The officers testified that multiple national and deputy commissioners and other police officials, including Lesetja Motiba, Sitole, Prince Mokotedi, Peter Jacobs, among others, were informed of ongoing drug thefts, procurement collusion, and unexplained reinstatements, yet none implemented the CPN recommendations.
Attempts to obtain the Jacobs investigation report, commissioned in 2025, were also unsuccessful.
Their testimony concluded with a request that Parliament compel SAPS to hand over the full CPN report, the Jacobs investigation report, and all related case files.
The officers said that after 14 years of reporting corruption internally, the only consistent outcome had been victimisation, stalled careers, and unresolved criminality within forensic services.
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