Members of Parliament grilled SAPS’ Chief Financial Officer (CFO), Lieutenant-General Puleng Dimpane, on the costs of the Political Killings Task Team (PKTT), and other financial matters within the organisation.

Dimpane appeared before the Ad Hoc Committee established to investigate the allegations made by the South African Police Service (SAPS) KwaZulu-Natal Provincial Head, Lieutenant-General Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi, on Tuesday.

The committee relocated proceedings from Parliament to Gauteng this week, where they are stationed at Kgoši Mampuru Correctional Centre in Tshwane. The decision was made to hear the testimony of “tenderpreneur” Vusimuzi “Cat” Matlala, who is currently in custody.

During her testimony, Dimpane explained that the PKTT has received a total of R435 million in funding since its establishment.

She also answered whether the current expenditure trends are normal: “If these task teams were permanent, regular SAPS members, the costs for accommodation and meals would be significantly lower if members could stay at home.”

She also explained that currently, the Division: Supply Chain Management (SCM) was not integrated into the CFO’s office within the SAPS.

Lieutenant-General Molefe Fani is currently responsible for the Supply Chain Management and reports directly to the National Commissioner.

Since May 2025, a new organisational structure has been approved that amends the reporting line of the Division: SCM, to report directly to the CFO, but the new structure is yet to be implemented, pending restructuring processes unfolding within the relevant structures.

When questioned about concerns of overburdening in this new structure by the uMkhonto weSizwe Party (MKP), Dimpane said: “It will be a lot of work, as I have indicated, SAPS is a huge institution. We have a big asset base, and we have issues that we need to deal with from a financial point of view.

“I think the implementation in terms of this particular structure differs from the departments. In small departments, you will find that supply management reporting to the CFO, cause it is not rational that the supply chain is separate in a department that is deemed to be small… But it will be a lot of work, it will require all hands on deck to work together and ensure that we uphold the law in terms of ensuring that people comply.”

She said that she believes conversations and preparations, in terms of full implementation of the structure, are continuing.

With regards to mitigating wasteful expenditure, she said that there are inefficiencies in the process, but that there is an SAPS committee on fruitless and wasteful expenditure.

“When I came, I established that particular committee, and I cannot vouch for its effectiveness at this point in time…”

When pressed on why, Dimpane explained that when she first arrived in 2019, the SCM division was within the office of the CFO, but then a decision was made to separate it.

Questioned by the Democratic Alliance on the bypassing of the internal audit system, Dimpane said “there are controls in place, and the issue is override, by people, and lack of consequence, and accountability”.

DA’s Ian Cameron, who is also the chair of the Portfolio Committee on Police, said that they heard from the Auditor-General a few weeks back that the SAPS has about R2.5bn in uninvestigated irregular expenditure, which has not been escalated to the relevant authorities.

“If I’m correct, there are about 275 transactions lying in there, and the National Commissioner has instructed SCM to unpack and allocate these transactions to everyone, so that there is accountability.

“There have been efforts where around 111 transactions were submitted to the National Treasury, as the condoning authority. It may appear that the National Treasury returns some of those transactions because of other information that was missing.

“So if you send to the condoning authority, you need to ensure that there’s compliance in terms of the National Treasury framework, you should have investigated, there should have been discipline, you should have confirmed that there was no fraud, no corruption, and all those things.”

Dimpane said that the National Commissioner has delegated her to assist SCM in this matter.

“During September, we had a very progressive meeting with the National Treasury. There is a team that is willing to support us, giving us directions, guidance in terms of how to deal with this. However, the ones that have been returned without condoning, this delegation then gives the account holder the authority to remove these sections from the book, but it is not just going to be a removal.

“You need to ensure that there is compliance in terms of paragraph 5.6 of the National Treasury Framework.”

Dimpane also made sure to reiterate that she was not advocating for the disbandment of the PKTT but rather that it become a permanent structure within the SAPS instead of a task team or intervention.

theolin.tembo@inl.co.za

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