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.
Her commander, Colonel Roderick Lewis, identified drastic irregularities in the provincial storage facility: missing registers, untraceable exhibit movements, and chaotic inventories.
When Lewis asked her to run serial-number checks on a batch of weapons meant for destruction, Mashale said she uncovered “clear evidence that a warrant officer was selling SAPS firearms back into the illegal market”.
According to her, weapons formally forfeited to the state appeared in the system as newly licensed to private owners, with matched serial numbers suggesting deliberate re-routing.
She alleged a network extending from station level to head office, involving firearm dealers and SAPS licensing officials.
Lewis escalated the matter to Free State Deputy Police Commissioner, Major General Solly Lesia “but nothing happened”, she testified.
She then sent protected disclosures to then-National Commissioner Khehla Sitole, who referred her to divisional commanders.
Mashale said a task team was attemped and sought a transfer for her to support the probe, but Provincial Commissioner Lieutenant General Motsunyane blocked the move, stalling the investigation.
Mashale maintains that subsequent disciplinary charges, criminal complaints and WhatsApp-related allegations were retaliation for disclosures implicating senior officers.
She recounted that on 6 January 2021 she filed a comprehensive protected disclosure to Sitole, attaching supporting affidavits from other members and naming senior Free State commanders, including Lesia and Motsunyane.
A week later, she said, one witnessm Captain Gerald Smith, warned her that Lesia had seen his affidavit and was “coming for her”.
“He said the general vowed he would deal with me and make sure I was dismissed,” she told MPs.
Following questions on WhatsApp messages implicating her in circulating allegations against senior officers; Mashale denied authoring the bulk of them, insisting she was acquitted in court and that the number used was not hers.
She did, however, acknowledge sending a 2021 message to a “Brigadier Nale” from SAPS Legal Services, warning that “the general” wanted him dismissed.
She characterised the 2020 seizure of her phones as unlawful, alleging officers used force and presented a doctored warrant originally issued for an unrelated Kroonstad matter.
The DPP later declined to prosecute the implicated officers, citing insufficient prospects.
Mashale also disputed SAPS’s account of her dismissal.
She said she never walked out of a disciplinary hearing, but rather sought the recusal of a conflicted presiding officer.
She asserts she was dismissed without proper notice while awaiting confirmation of a reconvened hearing.
Throughout the hearing, MPs criticised Parliament’s administrative staff for providing a disordered bundle containing more than 20 unlabeled annexures.
The committee’s chair Soviet Lekganyane warned this was “the last time” such failures would disrupt proceedings.
Xolile Mashukuca, the former chairperson of the State Security Agency (SSA), was expected to testify on Tuesday, but was ultimately postponed, over concerns on clearance and authorisation from the Director General.
INSIDE POLITICS