Parliament, Wednesday, 1 April 2026 – The Chairperson of the Portfolio Committee on Police, Mr Ian Cameron, has welcomed the suspension by the South African Police Service (SAPS) of a police captain attached to the Protection Security Services (PSS) after an internal investigation uncovered discrepancies and suspicious transactions within the division.
An investigation has uncovered that the captain allegedly used his access to the finance system to withdraw millions of rands in public funds by manipulating the system to transfer cash to himself under the guise that the money was being used for travel expenses for close protectors attached to the PPS.
Mr Cameron said: “Now SAPS has confirmed that a captain has been suspended, a fraud case has been opened, and the anti-corruption unit is investigating.”
However, this is not end of the matter. “Because this cannot stop with one suspension and one criminal case against a junior or middle-ranking official, if senior people knew, failed to act, signed off, or looked away when obvious red flags were there.”
If the allegations are correct, Mr Cameron said, the crime goes beyond theft and into abuse of one of the most sensitive functions in the police service: the administration of public funds allocated to policing.
This case raises much bigger questions, the Chairperson said, about how long the fraud continued, who approved and verified the transactions and who in senior management failed to intervene. These people will also need to be investigated, the Chairperson said.
Criminal prosecution must now follow the evidence wherever it leads. In addition, full disciplinary action must be taken, not only against the member directly implicated, but against any official who authorised, enabled, ignored or failed to stop these transactions when they should have acted.
The full money trail must also be traced and every cent recovered. Furthermore, if senior officials were grossly negligent, complicit or failed in their oversight duties, then they should also be prosecuted.
Those found guilty should face the full consequences of their actions, including civil recovery of any misappropriated funds where the evidence and the law support that. Public money is not abstract; it belongs to the people of South Africa, Mr Cameron said.
Unless SAPS is willing to deal with the senior chain of responsibility in this matter, the public will rightly believe that the system protects rank more than it protects the truth, he said. “It must expose the full chain. It must recover the money. It must punish those responsible, and it must reach senior officials if senior officials failed,” concluded Mr Cameron.
ISSUED BY THE PARLIAMENTARY COMMUNICATION SERVICES ON BEHALF OF THE CHAIRPERSON OF THE PORTFOLIO COMMITTEE ON POLICE, MR IAN CAMERON.
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