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South Africa’s top police officer has been served with an arrest warrant and is facing charges under a sprawling anti-corruption investigation that has thrown the beleaguered service into turmoil.
Gen Fannie Masemola, the country’s national police commissioner, has been ordered to appear in court next month as part of a widening probe into procurement fraud.
Twelve senior police officers, including a major general and several brigadiers, have also been arrested by anti-graft investigators and face charges of corruption and fraud.
The arrests are the latest embarrassment for the nation’s police, who have been under scrutiny since last summer when a senior officer alleged the criminal justice system had been infiltrated by a drug cartel.
KwaZulu-Natal provincial commissioner Lt Gen Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi claimed criminal syndicates had penetrated the highest levels of the police and accused the police minister, Senzo Mchunu, of having links with organised crime. Mr Mchunu denied any wrongdoing but was suspended.
The allegations prompted a formal commission of inquiry and a separate parliamentary investigation into claims that senior officers had been paid off by crime bosses.
Since then, the police have been rocked by a series of lurid allegations and headlines that opposition parties say are damaging public trust in the service.
Gen Masemola will appear in court over his alleged links to a controversial $21m (£15.5m) tender, a police spokesperson said.
The tender was intended to provide health services to police and was awarded to a company run by a businessman called Vusimuzi “Cat” Matlala.
The contract was later cancelled after concerns that the bid had been rigged, but not before Matlala had been paid $2.9m (£2.2m).
The acting police minister, Firoz Cachalia, said Gen Masemola was being charged under the Public Finance Management Act.
He said: “That concerns the standards that an accounting officer must meet.
“Masemola has not been charged with corruption.”
He is alleged to have been warned twice that the contract was irregular.
Gen Masemola previously denied any wrongdoing and said he would fully cooperate with the investigation.
Matlala is already under arrest and is being held on attempted murder and other charges in an unrelated case. He denies those charges.
He has been one of several witnesses called to testify on the alleged links between senior officers and crime kingpins.
Cyril Ramaphosa, the president, said he would be “addressing the matter concerning Gen Masemola in accordance with the law”.
Lisa Schickerling MP, spokesperson on police matters for the Democratic Alliance, said: “This development reinforces our long-standing concerns about systemic corruption within the South African Police Service.
“South Africans cannot be expected to have confidence in a police service where those entrusted with upholding the law are themselves accused of breaking it.”
Gen Masemola is not the first South African police chief to face criminal investigation while in office.
Jackie Selebi was sentenced in 2010 to 15 years in prison after being convicted of taking bribes from an Italian drug lord, Glen Agliotti, in exchange for turning a blind eye to his criminal activity.
Selebi died in 2015.
