Cape Town — The procurement crisis in the South African Police Service (SAPS) deepened at the weekend, with three "retired" generals insisting that national commissioner Bheki Cele misled Parliament when he described a litany of abuses he had become aware of since his appointment just over a year ago.

Gen Cele gave evidence to Parliament on Friday following news reports alleging that he had signed off on a R500m lease for new police office space without going to tender as required by law.

In Parliament he insisted that the police determined its needs and the Public Works Department handled tenders for leases. He also rejected suggestions that revelations of the R500m lease lay behind a request he made for the Special Investigating Unit to investigate supply chain management in the police.

Police committee chairwoman Sindi Chikunga (African National Congress) and Democratic Alliance MP Dianne Kohler Barnard asked Gen Cele if the resignations or retirements of generals Stefanus Terblanche, Matthews Siwundla and Hamilton Hlela, all from the supply chain management unit, were co-incidental to the launching of the investigation.

Stunned MPs heard Gen Cele describe how he had been asked to sign documents to create a public-private partnership to build a new R4bn headquarters for the police; other dodgy deals brought to him by then head of supply chain Gen Hlela which he refused to sign; and still further deals that were signed on his behalf by a relatively junior officer.

Gen Cele also detailed how the interception of a 70-page document had halted the irregular "outsourcing" of the entire forensic function of the SAPS to a company run by the husband of a police official.

There is mounting concern that the "resignations" or "retirements" of the three generals would put them beyond sanction if the irregularities were shown to be true.

While Gen Cele linked the resignations to the revelations and the investigation, the generals hit back at the weekend, saying Gen Cele had misled Parliament. A Sunday Times report said they insisted that they had not resigned but had been given golden handshakes in order to take early retirement.

Gen Terblanche and Gen Hlela said they had been unaware of questions raised about their alleged involvement in supply chain irregularities until Gen Cele raised the issue in Parliament.

"I only learnt about this in the media yesterday - it was never discussed with us," the newspaper quoted Gen Terblanche as saying.

Both men said Gen Cele personally led the drive to relocate the SAPS national and provincial headquarters in Pretoria and Durban for a total cost to taxpayers of R760m, the Sunday Times reported.