Former acting police commissioner Khomotso Phahlane has been granted bail of R20 000.

He appeared briefly in the Johannesburg Commercial Crime Court on Friday, following his arrest earlier in the morning on new charges stemming from an Independent Police Investigative Directorate (IPID) investigation into an R86m blue lights tender.

Phahlane’s lawyer argued that the arrest of his client was nothing but “a show of the media”.

“Your Worship, if you take a look, the media are here in numbers. I submit that this is the modus operandi of IPID, this is a set up,” Piet du Plessis argued.

Phahlane was accompanied by Major General Ravichandran Pillay, the head of South African Police Service’s supply chain management, who was also arrested on Friday morning.

Pillay is facing charges relating to a 2016 tender awarded to Instrumentation Traffic Law Enforcement, owned by millionaire Vimpie Manthatha, News24 reported earlier.

Phahlane further submitted in his affidavit that the decision to arrest him a day after Parliament resolved not to extend McBride’s contract as IPID head was “suspicious”.

“The matter reeks of ulterior motives and an attempt at point scoring by McBride and IPID as well as their cohorts frantically trying to bolster his efforts to be reappointed.

“Parliament has clearly found that he is not a fit and proper person to lead IPID,” he said.

Baseless allegation

IPID spokesperson Moses Dlamini said the allegation that IPID was putting on a show for the media was “baseless”.

“This is not a show to make McBride to look good. They were arrested today and McBride left yesterday, therefore there is no correlation.

“The argument has no merit,” he told the media outside the court.

Pillay, who was also granted R20 000 bail, and Phahlane will return to court on March 29.

[source: News24]