Commissioner Sithole must free SAPS from Forensic Data Analysis (FDA) chokehold

5 April 2018

The DA finds it outrageous that South Africa’s national security and integrity of the criminal justice system are being held to ransom by Forensic Data Analysis (FDA), a private company which is currently under investigation for possible corruption.

Commissioner Khehla Sithole is obligated, as the chief accounting officer, to ensure that he enforces the recommendation made by the Independent Police Investigative Directorate (IPID) to terminate all contracts with FDA.

The recklessness of the threat made by Keith Keating, the Director of FDA, to ‘collapse the criminal justice system’ if SAPS fails to adhere to his demands, is testament to the evolving crisis of chronic mismanagement within SAPS.

It is inconceivable how SAPS dropped the ball and failed to enter into a service level agreement to prevent ‘ransom demands’ by suppliers such as the FDA.

Commissioner Sithole must take urgent steps to diversify SAPS’s portfolio of suppliers for IT contracts so as to prevent a ‘hostile takeover’ of critical police functions by one supplier, to the detriment of the entire criminal justice system.

Together with my colleague in SCOPA, Tim Brauteseth MP, who exposed a possible corrupt relationship between FDA, SAPS and SITA and the resultant suspiciously irregular contracts, we will ask our respective portfolio committees to demand the immediate termination of all contracts with FDA as a first step in restoring SAPS independence.

Issued by Zak Mbhele, DA Shadow Minister of Police, 5 April 2018