Former acting national police commissioner Lieutenant-General Khomotso Phahlane will soon know the strength of the state's case against him.

A relaxed-looking Phahlane‚ sporting a peach-coloured shirt and blue blazer‚ appeared alongside his wife‚ Brigadier Beauty Phahlane‚ and used car salesman Durand Snyman on Thursday morning in the Pretoria Specialised Crimes Court on fraud and corruption charges.

The charges stem from alleged kickbacks Phahlane allegedly received for the awarding of tenders while he was head of the police forensics division.

Forensic companies allegedly received multi-million rand contracts to supply police forensic equipment such as specialised body fluid detection lights and fingerprint detection brushes.

The Independent Police Investigative Directorate‚ which is heading the investigation‚ alleges that kickbacks were given to Phahlane through the sale of discounted vehicles to him and several other police officers‚ including his wife.

The Phahlanes are also alleged to have received kickbacks through the sale of their vehicles to Snyman at inflated prices.

The accused were each released on R10‚000 bail.

Prosecutor Henry Nxumalo‚ in requesting the case be postponed to March 12‚ said that the state needed a month to finalise its investigation. He said upon finalisation he would be ready to disclose the contents of the state's case against the accused.

The Phahlanes' lawyer‚ Piet du Plessis‚ describing the arrests as completely unnecessary‚ questioned why the investigation was not completed.

"Given that this is a highly publicised case‚ which has been going on since last year‚ one should know why the state has not finished its investigation‚" he argued.

"It's interesting that they now require another month."

Nxumalo said the postponement was for everything to be finalised and said the docket's contents would be disclosed earlier to the accused‚ should the investigation be wound up sooner.