The South African Police Service (SAPS) has launched an investigation into the alleged manipulation of a “known individual’s criminal record” within its national systems, while simultaneously questioning the legitimacy of a past plea bargain that saw 18 serious crime charges result in a suspended sentence and fine.
The Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) in KwaZulu-Natal, Adv. Elaine Harrison, said she has noted the comments from the media briefing by Maj. Gen. Anthony Gopaul, KwaZulu-Natal’s acting head of detectives, held on Thursday in Durban.
The NPA said in a statement: “We have been collaborating regarding the dockets, which will be provided to the DPP for an investigation and to determine the issues raised regarding the plea(s) taken, the cases withdrawn and the matters not enrolled.”
NPA regional spokesperson Natasha Ramkisson-Kara said: “As a result, no responses can be provided on the issues raised at the briefing.”
In Gopaul’s briefing, he defended the integrity of the service and Lt Gen. Dumisani Khumalo, suspended divisional commissioner in Crime Intelligence, following a public challenge and defamation threat issued by Stuart Scharnick. Scharnick, who claimed to have a clean slate, now finds himself at the centre of a probe that threatens to reveal alleged collusion and corruption at multiple levels of the justice system.
Gopaul said detailed investigations were only triggered by Scharnick’s public threats to sue, forcing the SAPS to defend its integrity.
Given the nature of the convictions and the substantial fine, a legitimate expungement of these serious crimes would have been highly unlikely. – Maj. Gen. Anthony Gopaul
Scharnick publicly denied allegations in a televised interview stemming from Khumalo’s testimony at the Madlanga Commission of Inquiry into criminality, political interference and corruption in the criminal justice system. Khumalo claimed Scharnick was “very close” to suspended national deputy police commissioner Lt Gen. Shadrack Sibiya and allegedly was a “carjacker”.
According to Scharnick, his conviction history amounted to only “one case with 18 counts” between 2010 and 2011, which concluded with a five-year suspended sentence and a monetary payment. He claimed to have no criminal record and threatened to sue the SAPS for defamation, while laying a charge of perjury against Khumalo.
Gopaul, however, said they identified 29 criminal case dockets against Scharnick in the province alone. This history includes 10 cases of motor vehicle theft and eight cases of carjacking, “violent crimes that involve the use of force against victims, causing trauma”, Gopaul stated.
“These 18 vehicle-related crimes were the specific serious offenses that Lt Gen. Khumalo had initially highlighted. Other offenses identified range from assault GBH (some resolved with fines, others withdrawn), common assault, pointing of a firearm, and possession of unlicensed weaponry (for which he was found not guilty).”
Gopaul expressed alarm at the consolidation of 18 serious, syndicated vehicle-related crime dockets into a single case culminating in a “lenient penalty”.
The resulting sanction, a wholly suspended five-year sentence and R150 000 fine payable over five years, is viewed by the SAPS as “completely inadequate for the severity of the organised crime involved and the trauma inflicted upon carjacking victims”.
“Given the nature of the convictions and the substantial fine (R150 000, far exceeding the R20 000 expungement threshold for minor offenses), a legitimate expungement of these serious crimes would have been highly unlikely,” Gopaul said.
The police have immediately initiated an action plan to challenge the legal process itself. They will prepare two separate dossiers, according to Gopaul.
The most damning revelation concerned allegations of internal corruption within the national SAPS Criminal Records Centre (CRC).
During the investigation into Scharnick’s profile, it was uncovered that a police employee accessed the CRC system on 19 January this year and made “adjustments to Scharnick’s criminal record, specifically to his benefit”.
However, Gopaul confirmed that the back-end audit trail clearly reflected these deleted transactions.
A forensic investigation has been launched to hold the implicated employee accountable and to audit all deletion transactions within the CRC system over recent years.
It was also revealed that Scharnick legally owns five firearms (rifles, handguns and a shotgun) despite his criminal convictions.
According to Gopaul, Scharnick was previously refused a competency certificate twice in Richards Bay for failing to disclose prior convictions and pending cases.
“His fourth application in 2022 was approved, but bafflingly listed an address in Gauteng, raising serious procedural red flags,” Gopaul said.
Officials at the two police stations involved in the approval process are to be scrutinised to determine how these licences were acquired against protocol.
