News24 | Cops bought diesel from petrol station linked to ‘gang boss’ Stanfield while investigating him

• Police stations and a training academy bought nearly 3 000 litres of diesel from a service station linked to alleged organised crime boss Ralph Stanfield and his wife, Nicole Johnson.
• The transactions appear to have breached procurement rules, with SAPS allegedly paying up to five times the prevailing retail price and contracting with the business while Johnson was sequestrated.
• A SAPS inquiry is now under way to establish how the supplier was appointed and whether procurement red flags were ignored.

At the height of a high-stakes criminal investigation into alleged organised crime boss Ralph Stanfield and his criminally co-accused wife, Nicole Johnson, police bought thousands of litres of diesel from one of their family businesses, with another also registered as a fuel supplier.

And, as amaBhungane has discovered from the SA Police Service (SAPS) financial and supply chain management documents, police not only violated National Treasury regulations when they contracted the business but, on at least one occasion, paid five times the average retail price for diesel.

Officers seemingly used load shedding as an excuse for the procurement.

The discovery that police contracted Stanfield’s associated company while investigating him comes as prosecutors make final preparations for the infamous couple’s upcoming trial.

Stanfield and Johnson, together with 12 of their suspected associates from their alleged criminal organisation, which is known as The Firm, go on trial in the Western Cape High Court on 19 October. They are charged under the Prevention of Organised Crime Act for, among other alleged crimes, attempted murder, murder, fraud and money laundering.

AmaBhungane has previously reported how Stanfield was able to trade on his reputation as an enforcer to develop relationships and bag contracts with big private property and investment sector players to commercially develop an area around Cape Town International Airport and how he manoeuvred his way onto a beleaguered presidential project for the reconstruction of the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa’s (Prasa) vandalised Central Line in Cape Town.

Now, AmaBhungane can reveal, based on police supply chain management documents and other evidence, how Cape Town-based police did business with a company that, according to a credible source, is a key component of the Stanfield-Johnson shadow business enterprise.

Shadow enterprise 

In addition to construction and facilities management companies, the Stanfield-Johnson enterprise includes several fuel businesses, including a service station and a diesel distribution company.

Evidence suggests that it was through her NJ Diesel Distributors that Johnson imported diesel from Mozambique into South Africa, where she apparently sold it on Gauteng’s East Rand and in Cape Town.

What can be revealed now is that between October 2022 and March 2023, Cape Town’s Lentegeur and Nyanga police stations and the Bishop Lavis police training academy were regularly buying diesel from the couple’s John Ramsay service station.

In total, police bought nearly 3 000 litres of Stanfield-linked diesel for their generators, all surprisingly without triggering any internal supply chain management alarms.

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The service station is located in Cape Town’s suburb of Bishop Lavis, a known 28s street gang stronghold.

The two police stations are managed by the Western Cape provincial police office, while the academy is administered by the SAPS national training office.

Current and former police supply chain management sources claim that concluding contracts with a business with known links to the Stanfield-Johnson enterprise should immediately have raised “major red flags”.

“All the purchase sign-offs would have to have come from senior management, both at station and provincial level. These officers would receive regular intelligence briefings on all manner of crimes in the city. They would be in the know about investigations into people like Stanfield. Importantly, they would know that these investigations would be looking into businesses linked to organised crime gangs,” said a current SAPS supply chain manager.

The officer, who is based in Cape Town, said: “There is also no way that you are a commander of a police station in these areas and you don’t know that Stanfield and his family control that petrol station.”

A community policing forum source, who operates within the Lentegeur policing precinct and who asked not to be identified because of security concerns, said: “No one can say you don’t know who owns that garage.

“Everyone on the [Cape] Flats knows who the owners are. It is no secret that Ralph and Nicole run it. You don’t have to be a special [police] investigator to know.”

READ | How SARS fumbled its chance to take Ralph Stanfield down Al Capone-style

Attempts to get comment via the couple’s lawyer were unsuccessful.

AmaBhungane’s dissection of the service station’s business structure using Companies and Intellectual Property Commission (CIPC) documents, publicly available court records from one of Stanfield’s bail applications and Google searches reveals extensive connections between the business, Stanfield and his family that go back at least 29 years.

Family connections 

CIPC records show the John Ramsay service station has been associated both directly and indirectly with Stanfield and his family since 1997, when his aunt, Sharifa Stanfield, was first appointed as a member of the close corporation (as it was then). Sharifa is the former wife of Stanfield’s late uncle, organised crime boss and convicted tax evader, Colin Stanfield.

Records show Ralph Stanfield himself became a member on 28 June 2004, resigning eight years later on 6 November 2012, when two of his associated trusts, the Stanfield Family Trust and the Ralcole Family Trust, along with Johnson, were appointed members. He was reappointed as a representative trustee on the CC the same day that the trusts and Johnson were appointed.

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While CIPC records show Stanfield and the Stanfield Family Trust officially resigned from the company on 27 June 2014, circumstantial information suggests that, until his and Johnson’s arrest on 29 September 2023, Stanfield remained fully involved in the service station’s financial operations.

CIPC records show that in October 2024, a month after police conducted a raid on the service station, Johnson seemingly tried to create distance between herself and the business by resigning. Her mother, Barbara Johnson, was then appointed its sole director.

How – and, importantly, why – the police missed these family connections, and whether procurement red flags were deliberately or conveniently ignored, remain unknown.

Police management launched an enquiry into the contracting this month after amaBhungane began asking questions, but blamed Eskom’s “load shedding” and said officers were trying “to ensure the continuity of essential operations”.

Turning a blind eye 

National Treasury procurement rules require companies wanting to do business with the government to be registered on its central supplier database (CSD), which is exactly what Johnson did in 2021.

A CSD registration report shows that on 13 June 2021, she registered the service station as a government supplier.

How this happened, though, is questionable, given that Johnson was under sequestration at the time. Both Johnson and Stanfield were sequestrated in January 2019, with the Western Cape High Court issuing their rehabilitation certificates only in April 2023, a month after their last diesel delivery to the police.

ALSO READ | Inside the SAPS investigation into former Prasa security chief Alexio Papadopulo

The Insolvency Act prohibits an unrehabilitated sequestrated person from managing a company or being involved in the management of a close corporation, which the service station was until December 2023, when Johnson reregistered it with CIPC as a proprietary limited business.

The effect of the legislation is that, because Johnson (who at the time was the service station’s sole member when the police contracted it) was sequestrated, the business would have had no legal management to authorise the signing of such contracts.

The contracting of Johnson while she was sequestrated appears not to be the only procurement rule breached by the SAPS.

SARS records show that at the time, neither Johnson nor the service station was apparently tax-compliant.

AmaBhungane

AmaBhungane has learnt from a SARS source that in June 2026, the Receiver issued a final letter of demand against Johnson and the service station over unpaid tax debts.

The letter related to findings from an audit – concluded on 19 September 2024 – on the service station for the 2019 to 2023 tax years. It was during this time that the police contracted the service station.

The audit revealed that the service station reportedly owed R54.4 million in company income tax and R148 156.72 in PAYE. An audit of Johnson, concluded on 29 November 2024, assessed her tax debt at R31.6 million for the 2019 to 2023 tax years.

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AmaBhungane understands the service station objected to the assessment and applied for a condonation. Both the objection and the condonation request were rejected, and SARS issued a final letter of demand in June 2026. It is unknown whether the service station and Johnson have since settled their tax debts.

SARS declined to discuss the taxpayers’ affairs.

The diesel orders 

The first order placed was by Nyanga police station, which sourced diesel on five occasions from the service station between 28 September 2022 and 28 October 2022.

During that month, historical load shedding data show that load shedding varied between Stages 2 and 4.

A police order form, stamped by the station’s commander, and financial records, all of which carry the service station’s SAPS supplier number, show that in total, Johnson’s business was paid R38 131.64 for the supplies.

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It is not known how the service station, which is 10km away from the police station, was selected or why one of five other closer filling stations, including one right next door, were not used.

When it came to the academy, police financial records show that between 6 November 2022 and 31 March 2023, the service station made 12 deliveries of diesel for which the SAPS paid R130 587.10.

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AmaBhungane: Google Maps

AmaBhungane: Google Maps

An order form from the academy shows that, in its first order, placed on 6 November 2022, the commander signed off on a payment of R122 364.00 to the service station for the delivery of 990 litres of diesel. For that delivery, the SAPS paid about R123 per litre. Historical data from the Fuel Industry Association of South Africa shows that the coastal price of diesel at the time was R24.83 per litre.

While it is not known why the academy paid R123 per litre or why so many orders were placed, load shedding was fluctuating between Stages 2 and 6.

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Supply chain management documents show that an officer from Lentegeur police station, which is situated 17km from the service station with 13 other filling stations closer to it, wrote to the service station on behalf of the station commissioner and requested that it bid on a tender for the supply of 900 litres of diesel.

The letter, written on 22 December 2022, shows that the bid closing date was a week later, on 29 December 2022. Johnson submitted the service station’s bid of R22 176.00 the following day, on 23 December 2022.

But wait, there’s more 

Evidence unearthed by amaBhungane shows the service station was not the only Stanfield-Johnson enterprise company registered as a police fuel supplier.

Our investigation has revealed that another company registered to supply diesel was one of the couple’s other companies, Yibaninati.

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Information on the SAPS system shows that it is also registered as a fuel supplier, with Johnson listed as the contact person, along with her email address and cellphone number.

While amaBhungane has been unable to ascertain as to whether the police ever bought fuel from the business, our investigations into the operations of the Stanfield-Johnson empire have revealed how Yibaninati was, at the time, a key tool in their alleged capture of Prasa’s multi-billion-rand reconstruction of the vandalised Central Line in Cape Town.

Red flags 

Our former national SAPS supply chain management source said there were strict regulations governing the appointment of suppliers.

“When vetting suppliers, there is a process where supply chain practitioners conduct due diligence…”

The source said information from a variety of sources was meant to be reviewed, including publicly available information, and added that if it was found that someone had been arrested or was under investigation, especially for serious and violent crime, even if not convicted, the supplier would be flagged.

“If a director of a company is sequestrated, the company should not get a tender. It’s a problem because how will the supplier render services if they don’t have money or are financially unfit? It is a red flag.”

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In determining diesel prices, the source said there were guidelines from the National Treasury, with police having dedicated staff who conducted market analysis of goods.

“This is done at a national and provincial level by officers working in demand management sections whose job is to determine prices that are paid for suppliers. You cannot just pay whatever you like.”

When it comes to selecting suppliers, National Treasury’s rules are unequivocal.

What the law says 

In an emailed response, National Treasury said that while suppliers may register on the CSD, irrespective of their tax-compliance status, supply chain management instructions required a supplier to be tax-compliant at the time a contract was awarded.

It said the CSD automatically verified a supplier’s tax compliance status in real time, directly with SARS, and made this information available to organs of state.

“Organs of state may not award contracts to suppliers that are not tax compliant.”

ALSO READ | Alleged crime boss Stanfield’s wife spends R5m on Sea Point flat while in prison

It added that where suppliers were non-tax-compliant, “the information is reflected on the supplier’s CSD profile and registration report and is visible to organs of state during supplier selection and evaluation processes”.

Treasury added that “responsibility for ensuring compliance at the award stage remains with the procuring institution”.

Inquiry 

Western Cape police spokesperson Brigadier Novela Potelwa confirmed the “transactions”, which she said were “preceded by a fair procurement process that considered other service providers listed on the CSD.

“The process culminated in the preferred service provider rendering a service over time to two police stations, namely Lentegeur and Nyanga. Records further indicate the last transaction between Western Cape SAPS and the service provider was in January 2023.”

She said that upon notification of concerns about the service provider regarding its ownership, the SAPS in the Western Cape conducted no further business transactions with it.

Potelwa said would not say what the concerns were or who raised them.

When amaBhungane questioned whether, given Johnson’s known notoriety, risk assessments had either not been done or ignored, Potelwa said: “Given the complexity of the questions raised and the allegations referred to in your correspondence, an inquiry has been initiated to establish the facts and determine the appropriate course of action, including whether the matter warrants a criminal investigation.”

National police spokesperson Colonel Athlenda Mathe, speaking on behalf of the academy, which is administered by the SAPS national training department, said the “prescribed procurement process” was followed when it became necessary to procure fuel during periods of load shedding “to ensure the continuity of essential operations and keep the facility operational”.

“Importantly, at the time the procurement was undertaken, the academy had no knowledge or information indicating that the owners of the supplier were allegedly involved in any criminal activities. The procurement decision was therefore based on the prescribed process, the quotations received and the information available to the academy at that time.”

This story was produced by the amaBhungane Centre for Investigative Journalism. Sign up for their newsletter.