Phala Phala: Cachalia defends top-secret classification of report into police officers’ conduct

Minister of Police Firoz Cachalia has defended the top-secret classification of a report into the conduct of police officers involved in a covert operation to get back thousands of US dollars stolen from the president’s Phala Phala farm.

On Monday, the trial of three suspects accused of housebreaking appeared in the Modimolle Regional Court for the start of their trial, more than five years after the incident.

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In a reply to a parliamentary question from ActionSA, Cachalia said that making the police report public would disrupt operational planning.

In answer to another question from the ATM, Cachalia has revealed that the head of the president’s protection unit, Wally Rhoode, has been found not guilty for pursuing suspects without an official police case having been registered.

ActionSA and the African Transformation Movement (ATM) are among political parties that are demanding to know why Rhoode is off the hook on misconduct charges when, in 2023, the public protector found evidence that he had breached the South African Police Service (SAPS)’s disciplinary regulations and should face a hearing.

This decision appears to form part of a pattern of police officers being cleared through internal processes despite their conduct being called into question before the courts.

Recently, it was also revealed to Parliament that the deputy president’s protection officers were also cleared, despite facing criminal charges for assaulting civilians on the N1 in Johannesburg in 2023.

Police officers who guarded Parliament on the night it was torched by a lone arsonist, who was found mentally unfit to stand trial, have also not faced any consequences.

In an explanation to Parliament, the police minister said he’s satisfied that the classification of the Phala Phala report meets the minimum information security standards.

He said the report has the propensity to damage operational relations between institutions.

“In light of these, it was absolutely necessary to classify the report ‘top secret’. The report will remain so classified until these elements are no longer in existence,” said Cachalia in reply.

But the ATM’s Vuyo Zungula said his party will challenge what it views as the failure to discipline Rhoode as per the public protector’s recommendations.

“It is a deliberate effort by the ANC [African National Congress] to destroy most of these institutions that can actually hold them accountable and institute criminal proceedings against them.”

ActionSA, meanwhile, has threatened legal action if the police reject its application to release the report.

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