Pretoria – President Cyril Ramaphosa on Thursday appointed Lieutenant General Puleng Dimpane as acting South Africa Police Service (SAPS) commissioner a day after suspending Fannie Masemola who is facing criminal charges.
The appointment is with immediate effect.
Masemola and 15 other senior SAPS officers are facing criminal charges that involves corruption that led to the awarding of a contract to Medicare24 which is owned by underground crime boss Vusimusi ‘Cat’ Matlala.
Masemola,61,faces four counts of contravening the Public Finance Management Act (PFMA).
Dimpane was a Chief Financial Officer and Divisional Commissioner for Financial Management Services in the South African Police Service, a position she has held since 2018.
She has recently testified on SAPS expenditure, including the reported high costs associated with task teams such as the Political Killings Task Team (PKTT), where figures of around R435 million were discussed.
In her testimony, she denied personal involvement in tender processes linked to these expenditures.
South Africa is riddled with criminal activities that range from murder, murder, violence and corruption among many other vices.
The SAPS has been accused of not doing enough to end criminal activities as some top level police officers are involved in crime.