Divisional Commissioner appointed for the Hawks

PRETORIA - The National Head of the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation, Lieutenant General Godfrey (Adv/Dr) Lebeya welcomed the appointment of the Divisional Commissioner for the Directorate, Lieutenant General (Adv/CFE) Senaba Mosipi effective from the 01 June 2022 and believes that this will assist in a quest to address capacity challenges within the Directorate.

Lieutenant General Senaba Mosipi joined South African Police (Service) on 17th July 1984 and worked at different police stations including Tzaneen, Pretoria West (K9) Dog School ( Atteridgeville Academy), Dwaalboom and Jeppestown, where he performed a variety of duties including but not limited to, charge office, administration, investigation and court duties. After successfully completing the Candidate Officers course and becoming a Commissioned Officer on 1st December 1993, he proceeded to work at Johannesburg Central police station. Lt General Mosipi held managerial position in different sections, which included management of members working in the Community Service Centre, reliefs, holdings cells, SAPS 6 case dockets storage and human resources management from 13th September 1994.

Whilst in the employ of the Service, Lt Gen Mosipi, equipped himself with a National Diploma (Police admin) from the: University of South Africa (1993); Bachelor of Law degree (B Iuris) from the University of South Africa (2002); Bachelor of Laws degree (LLB) also from the University of South Africa (2006); Graduate Certificate in Applied Management: Australian Institute of Police Management (2010) and Certified Fraud Examiner (CFE) from the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners in 2013. He is currently studying towards his Master Degree in Law.

His tenure in Middle Management and investigation began from December 1995 to September 2003 which started with him joining the Johannesburg Commercial Crime Unit as an investigating officer for fraud and economic crimes largely known as white collar crime at the level of Captain. His duties entailed investigation, collecting evidence to prepare cases for court purposes, giving testimony in court as well as doing in-service training for new investigators through conducting inspections on their work.

Having excelled in his duties at middle management, he was appointed Provincial Commander: Commercial Crime Investigations, Mpumalanga on 1st December 2000 with his duties including the management, coordination and monitoring of resources allocated to the Component: Commercial Crime Investigations in the province and the implementation of national policy, including standards and procedures relating to commercial crimes investigations. In this position he also mentored investigators during the investigation of high profile cases, conducted inspections in investigators’ cases at the unit level, identified training needs and initiated training interventions. Part of the duties also entailed representing the Provincial Head: Detective Services at forums and committee meetings relating to commercial crimes’, managing and coordinating the appointment of accounting firms to conduct forensic accounting investigations and ensured that proper service was rendered to the community in the province with regard to commercial crime matters.

The type of work ethic and dedication resulted in Lt Gen Mosipi being promoted to Provincial Head: Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation, Free State, where he led a very effective and committed team of corruption investigators. His skills and supervision in the fight against organised crime and corruption became apparent in his interventions in the 2013, Caledonspoort Border Gate Corruption Project where 9 police officials, 6 Department of Home Affairs’ officials and 1 Department of Health official arrested. In 2014, Welkom Gold Smuggling and Police Corruption Project which saw 21 police officials being arrested and both disciplinary as well as criminal cases were successfully finalised.

Lt Gen Mosipi served as a member of the Commercial Crime Training Committee between 2004 and 2011. The committee was responsible for developing commercial crime training modules designed to train commercial crime investigators. In 2010 he was awarded the Graduate Certificate in Applied Management by the Australian Institute of Police Management after successfully completing the 106th Police Development Program.

Lt Gen Mosipi also represented the SA Police Service at the 2nd International Financial Crimes Conference in Lyon, France and delivered a presentation on Nigerian 4-1-9 Scam (Advance Fee Fraud). The Interpol General Secretariat later sent a letter of appreciation to the South African Police Service for a well prepared informative and delivered presentation that was well received.

Between 2006 and 2009 he represented the South African Police Service in all the Financial and Hi-Tech Crime workshops organised by the Interpol Sub-Region Bureau, Harare between 2006 and 2009. He prepared and presented South Africa’s reports relating to commercial / financial crime in these workshops. With the request of the Interpol Sub-Region’s financial crimes officer he also prepared and made presentations for the workshops on topics relating financial crimes, the last being a presentation on West African Advance Fee Fraud, commonly known as the Nigerian 419, delivered in Swaziland in 2009.

Source: South African Police Service