The SCA has dismissed an application by Forensic Data Analysts director Keith Keating for leave to appeal against the validity of a search and seizure warrant issued in December 2017, says a Daily Maverick report. A few days after a search and seizure warrant was issued on 1 December 2017, investigators raided the homes of Keating and former acting National Police Commissioner Khomotso Phahlane, both implicated in allegations of fraud, theft, corruption, racketeering and money laundering. The raid took place about a week after revelations to a parliamentary Standing Committee on Public Accounts hearing of wide-scale alleged corruption and procurement irregularities in the SA Information and Technology Agency (Sita) and the SAPS, amounting to about R6.1bn. The Independent Police Investigative Directorate (Ipid), the Hawks and SAPS raided at least seven homes, including Keating’s, and those of Phahlane and other family members implicated in receiving alleged kickbacks from Keating. Respondents to Keating’s application included senior Magistrate Du Preez (who authorised the warrant), the Minister of Police, the Hawks’ Colonel Roelofse, Colonel J du Plooy and the executive director of Ipid. Keating’s appeal was dismissed with costs by Judges Eric Leach and Rammaka Mathopo, on the grounds that ‘there is no reasonable prospect of success in an appeal and there is no other compelling reason why an appeal should be heard’. The DM report says Keating is at the centre of a massive investigation by Ipid and the Hawks into the capture of Sita and SAPS over a number of years. At least 20 top SAPS members have been implicated in the alleged corruption, says the report.