Former acting national police commissioner Lt-Gen Khomotso Phahlane has justified his decision to cancel a R92m contract for 360-degree panoramic cameras.

The contract was originally awarded to Ethemba Forensic Group in July 2014 during Phahlane’s tenure as the head of SAPS Forensic Services.

Appearing before parliament’s ad hoc committee on Wednesday, Phahlane maintained that his refusal to honour the contract was based on the product’s failure to meet required technical specifications.

Phahlane’s decision and subsequent conduct led to his dismissal from the SAPS in 2020. Furthermore, the SAPS was ultimately ordered to pay a legal settlement of about R24m to Ethemba Forensic Group for a contract that resulted in zero cameras being delivered.

The labour court previously ruled that Phahlane’s conduct “put in motion a sequence of events that ultimately led to significant financial loss to the [police]”.

However, Phahlane stood by his actions, asserting he would not allow public funds to be wasted on inadequate equipment.

I won’t let R92m go down the drain just because a glorified service provider was given a contract and I am expected to sign off on the order. I will never do that.

—  Lt-Gen Khomotso Phahlane, former acting national police commissioner

“I will never spend public funds on something that is not going to be used,” Phahlane told the committee.

“I won’t let R92m go down the drain just because a glorified service provider was given a contract and I am expected to sign off on the order. I will never do that.”

Phahlane explained that after the contract was awarded, complaints regarding the product’s quality arose from a competitor, Forensic Data Analysts (FDA).

“It was alleged that the product of the successful bidder did not comply with several criteria stipulated in the bid specifications,” he said.

The bid evaluation committee had originally shortlisted two companies: Ethemba and FDA. While both companies initially claimed their products met all requirements during site visits and demonstrations, Phahlane argued that critical flaws were discovered after the bid was awarded.

Specifically, the contract required a spherical camera capable of capturing a full panoramic image in a single, motorised rotation.

“The Ethemba product does not provide a single-rotation scan,” Phahlane said. “Instead, it rotates and scans a limited view, repeating this process several times. This requires the user to ‘stitch’ the images together manually to create a panoramic view.”

The former top cop clashed with evidence leader Norman Arendse SC over the facts of the case. Arendse referenced an arbitrator’s report that painted a different picture of Phahlane’s role in the failed procurement.

The report stated: “The applicant’s [Phahlane’s] conduct, in my view, was reckless at this stage. There was threatened legal action. The applicant held the view that supply chain was insistent on the procurement despite the alleged non-compliance. However, he failed to see that it was he, or his division, that made it difficult for supply chain to act appropriately in this matter.”

The arbitrator further noted that it was insufficient for Phahlane to merely claim the equipment was non-compliant while failing to address official reports that indicated the equipment did, in fact, meet the necessary standards.

The topic delayed proceedings of the committee, leading to MPs requesting the evidence leader to proceed to other matters as this was not part of the mandate of the committee.

Proceedings continue.