Fraud investigator Paul O’Sullivan has firmly denied allegations that he is an information peddler as he faced intense questioning from members of Parliament’s ad hoc committee.
O’Sullivan returned to the Good Hope Chamber in Cape Town on Wednesday for a second day of testimony before the committee, which is probing alleged corruption, criminal infiltration and political interference within South Africa’s justice system.
Paul O’Sullivan compared to Brown Mogotsi
The hearing turned confrontational when ANC MP Xola Nqola asked O’Sullivan whether he could be considered a “habitual liar”, a “name dropper” or an “information peddler”.
“Of course not,” O’Sullivan replied.
Nqola referenced a podcast in which former police commissioner George Fivaz had allegedly called O’Sullivan a liar.
He challenged O’Sullivan, saying: “So, everyone else is lying except you? A lot of the people you’re mentioning, you say they are lying. That includes [Fannie] Masemola, [Dumisani] Khumalo, and [Nhlanhla] Mkhwanazi. So, everyone in South Africa – and the world – is lying except Mr. Paul O’Sullivan?”
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MK party MP Vusi Shongwe then questioned O’Sullivan about his allegations that some MPs received confidential information from Crime Intelligence officials.
Shongwe pointed out that O’Sullivan himself claimed to get information from a reliable source within Crime Intelligence and asked if this wasn’t the same thing he was accusing MPs of.
“You can be the white Brown Mogotsi,” Shongwe remarked, drawing a comparison between O’Sullivan and alleged political fixer Oupa ‘Brown’ Mogotsi, who claims to be an undercover operative for Crime Intelligence.
Radovan Krejčíř braai
O’Sullivan was also questioned about a braai linked to Czech organised crime figure Radovan Krejčíř, which Police Minister Senzo Mchunu’s chief of staff, Cedric Nkabinde, said was the setting for a plot against former acting national police commissioner Khomotso Phahlane.
O’Sullivan described the gathering as “an informal braai that lasted two hours”, attended by former Independent Police Investigative Directorate (Ipid) head Robert McBride, suspended deputy national police commissioner Shadrack Sibiya and several other officials.
He clarified that Sibiya was no longer in the police at the time and worked for the City of Johannesburg, while Nkabinde wasn’t invited, but he “turned up” nonetheless.
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A journalist attending to discuss a book on Krejčíř was also present.
O’Sullivan denied that members from the DA and AfriForum were at the braai, as Nkabinde alleged.
“All these things were fabricated.”
He also explained the location of the braai.
“The house in question is owned by a company and I asked the owner of the company if we can use the house. Radovan Krejčíř used to live there.”
Watch the ad hoc committee below:
Krejčíř, notorious for criminal activities in South Africa and abroad, was convicted of kidnapping and attempted murder in 2015 and sentenced to 35 years.
In the Czech Republic, he was sentenced in absentia to 15 years for fraud, tax evasion and plotting to murder a customs official.
Relationship with Sibiya
O’Sullivan recounted his interactions with Sibiya, which began during investigations into Krejčíř in the early to mid-2010s.
Following Sibiya’s appointment as deputy national commissioner in July 2023, O’Sullivan met him several times to deliver dockets on corrupt police officials and prosecutors.
“He then handed that to subordinates of his and we then worked with those people and those police officials were arrested and so were the prosecutors and they are currently on trial.”
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He last contacted Sibiya on 6 July 2025, after allegations by Mkhwanazi.
“Of course, he denied everything and I said to him ‘well, I hope you have got your version of events to put forward.’”
O’Sullivan emphasised that their relationship was strictly professional, saying the pair were not friends.
“I want to place it on record. I don’t know where he lives, I have never been to his house.
“I have never been to a restaurant for a meal with him. I have never had any dealings with him. The only time we ever had a meal together was the braai.”
Defending his reputation
O’Sullivan said attempts are being made to tarnish his record as a corruption-buster of more than 36 years by painting him as a foreign agent and spy, citing his multiple passports and service in British army military intelligence during the 1970s.
He also confirmed his membership of Afrikaans lobby group AfriForum, which he joined in 2016.
He pays R120 per month for the membership.
O’Sullivan added that he donated a bottle of whiskey to the organisation’s CEO, Kallie Kriel.
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