Suspended Tshwane Metro Police Department Director for Asset Protection Services denies instructing ad hoc firms to guard Tshwane sites
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Suspended Tshwane Metro Police Department (TMPD) Director for Asset Protection Services Tshukudu Malatji told the Madlanga Commission of Inquiry on Thursday that he does not recall instructing TMPD road policing officer Major Lebogang Phiri to deploy ad hoc security firms.
The deployment was part of the R2.9 billion contract to safeguard critical municipal infrastructure sites against theft and vandalism.
Malatji was testifying in light of Phiri's recent evidence contained in the email Malatji wrote to him and his supervisor, Dr Kwapeng Madihlaba suggesting he wanted them to deploy the security firms.
In the email addressed to both Phiri and Madihlaba, Malatji stated: "Please get Phiri to run with the process and let's monitor progress."
The email followed exchanges between Malatji, Phiri and Herman Segolela, an engineer from the city's Department of Water and Sanitation.
Justice Mbuyiseli Madlanga, chairing the commission, said the emails ultimately suggested a deployment should occur.
One of Segolela's emails to Malatji stated: "We have forwarded all the information needed by the Metro Police Department. We are still waiting for them to confirm deployment".
In the email, Segolela asked Malatji to confirm when he could deploy security to prevent more vandalism, citing an incident of vandalism at the Klapperskop water facility.
In another email Segolela forwarded a list of security needs for deployment.
Malatji said:"I do not remember instructing Phiri to deploy any ad hoc service, either in January 2025 or before."
He explained that deployment letters are issued only for services following the standard operating procedure (SOP). He added that any deployment not adhering to the SOP would not receive a deployment certificate signed by his office.
"If it happened that he signed them he (Phiri) did it out of his own (volition) and not with my instruction," he said.
He said he does not remember seeing such signed deployment letters from Phiri, but he could not rule out the possibility that invoices he signed related to those January 2025 deployment letters.
During his testimony Phiri said: "I didn't just wake up and become a rogue inspector at that time and started deploying."
He shared with the commission an email trail detailing how he was delegated to run the security deployment.
He explained that he derived his authority to issue instructions from Malatji and that the instruction to provide ad hoc security for water and sanitation was issued via email on January 9, 2025.
Phiri has been accused of contravening TMPD's procurement processes by allocating security sites for critical municipal infrastructure to security firms without authorisation.
Malatji said:"By ordering Mr Phiri to attend a meeting I was not in any way giving him authority or delegating responsibility or duty to deploy any ad hoc services."
Madlanga quipped that the overarching purpose of the Malatji email exchanges with Phiri and Herman Segolela, an engineer from the city's water and sanitation department was ultimately to have a deployment.
Madlanga stated that in the context of the email, Phiri's version that he was delegated powers to deploy makes sense.
Malatji said:"It is not true that instructing them to run with the process meant that they should continue deploying security because they themselves know that in order for deployment to be carried out there must be an SOP (which starts with a requirement that the user department must first make a request for such services)."
He said that despite Segolela's emails suggesting a request was already made by mentioning the deployment need of security to vulnerable infrastructure sites it lacked critical information for TMPD to comply with SOP.
"There shall be no deployment done unless the department requesting security has committed funds to service the deployment," he said.
He said if his memory serves him well, funds were committed at that point in time.
He said the request also needed to indicate the duration for which the services were needed, adding that they should have come back to him.
Madlanga:"You couldn't sit and fold your arms and wait for them to come to you. Not when Mr Segolela has repeatedly asked for urgent deployment."
Despite his earlier denial that he delegated deployment power to Phiri, he conceded that he only asked Phiri to deploy on January 7, 2025 to safeguard specific infrastructure, including Klapperskop station due to its vulnerability to vandalism.
rapula.moatshe@inl.co.za