Information extracted from police crime intelligence operation support boss Maj-Gen Feroz Khan’s seized devices reveals chats about multi-million rand tenders with tobacco company executive Mohamed Sayed. Khan’s chats with Sayed were revealed by the Madlanga commission of inquiry investigating allegations of criminal infiltration in law enforcement in a withdrawn litigation initiated by the top cop before the high court in Johannesburg. In the litigation Khan sought to stop the commission from accessing information extracted from his devices seized by police, without a warrant, on May 10 during his arrest. The commission is arguing the importance of having the information for its work shed light on some of the findings in Khan’s phone.“He is not seeking to preserve the status quo; he is seeking to have the commission’s work stopped in its tracks so it can never use his information to further its investigations and make recommendations based on that information in its final report,” commission secretary Nolitha Vukuza’s affidavit reads. Vukuza argued the commission does not have Khan’s devices but rather a hard drive of information downloaded by police from his devices. She argued a glimpse of the chats shows Khan knew about a tobacco company, Carnilinx, which has faced a debacle about evading tax on tobacco. This was pinned on his chat with Sayed, who is a senior executive at Carnilinx. Vukuza contended information analysed by the commission showed Khan was involved in improper attempts to manipulate procurement within the SA Police Service (SAPS) for the benefit of Sayed and himself and that Khan regularly shared confidential information from crime intelligence with Sayed. The information uncovered by the commission remains under investigation, and Khan will be afforded an opportunity to respond when he appears at the commission on July 1. Commission investigator Tshepo Nyatlo, arguing why the information obtained by the commission was essential, shared findings on Khan’s conversations about tenders with Sayed. The chats date back to 2021. Nyatlo said chats between Sayed and Khan from June 2021 appear to show the duo involving themselves, through Gen Molefi Fani, in an IT contract between National Treasury and a company called Cyberia. Sayed forwarded Khan a copy of the master agreement between Cyberia and National Treasury. Nyatlo argued Khan and Sayed used a company called Smada “for the Cyberia contract kickback”.“He [Sayed] then messaged Gen Khan to explain that on the proposed contract of R28m, they would get about R92.4m, or 30% which would be split equally three ways. “It is not clear whether the third party who would receive approximately R27.6m from the enterprise was Genl Fani or someone else,” Nyatlo’s affidavit reads. Khan had a copy of a drafted contract between Smada and Cyberia. In the same year, Sayed messaged Khan about a tobacco company in East London, Protobac, agiving details of their factory, what cigarette brands they manufactured and saying: “I need to fu*k them out of sight.”Nyatlo said this was Sayed’s strategy of knocking out competitors by leaking information about “illegal tobacco” trading.Nyatlo alleged Khan’s chats in June 2021 showed Khan, EFF leader Julius Malema and Sayed seemingly “orchestrating” the removal of then inspector general of intelligence Setlhomamaru Dintwe. This because the chats revealed Khan sent to Sayed a series of questions to be posed to the Dintwe in parliament by the EFF. The questions were about whether Dintwe was linked to alleged drug lord Timmy Marimuthu. Khan said Dintwe would lie when confronted with the questions, which would prompt calls for his removal. Sayed also forwarded a request to Khan for information about a case opened at the Sandton police station by VBS Bank curator Anoosh Rooplal. The request allegedly came from Malema. Malema and former EFF deputy president Floyd Shivambu were implicated in the VBS scandal by former VBS chair Tshifiwa Matodzi in an affidavit before he was sentenced in 2023. Malema described Matodzi’s affidavit as untested evidence. In the same month of June 2021 Khan sent Sayed a notice for his disciplinary hearing, in which Sayed asked if he could send it to “Juju”. Juju is believed to be a reference to Malema. “On September 222021, Mr Sayed sent Gen Khan a message of support from Mr Malema in relation to his disciplinary proceedings: ‘I forgot to tell you that Ju called me, said you will not ever resign, no matter what, this is a fight and we will emerge victorious’.” The references to Malema were not direct chats between Khan and the EFF leader, but through Sayed. Khan’s legal challenge against the commission, the police minister, a position currently held by acting minister Firoz Cachalia, crime intelligence boss Lt-Gen Dumisani Khumalo and investigating officer Calvin Khorommbi was set to be heard on Tuesday but it has been withdrawn.