Two consecutive national police commissioners were removed for procurement misconduct within five years. After Bheki Cele's dismissal over the Shabangu leases, Lt-Gen Khomotso Phahlane acted as National Commissioner from October 2015. IPID investigated him over kickbacks from Forensic Data Analysts (FDA) owner Keith Keating; those charges were provisionally withdrawn in 2018, but the SAPS disciplined him over the R92.9 million panoramic forensic-camera tender, from which R46 million was diverted and a R24 million settlement extracted. He was dismissed in 2020; on 16 July 2021 the Safety and Security Sectoral Bargaining Council upheld the dismissal as fair, finding he showed "no remorse" and "sought to apportion blame to everyone else but himself". His defence was that the contract "would benefit the SAPS".
Two prosecutions remain. In March 2019 he was arrested with his wife Beauty and others over an R86 million emergency-lights ("blue lights") tender. In 2024 the Investigating Directorate moved a further case to the Pretoria High Court: R54 million in RIPJAR/Daedalus surveillance software bought during the #FeesMustFall protests and allegedly used to delete phone records while Phahlane was under IPID investigation. Charges are untested; he is presumed innocent.