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South Africa’s high commissioner to Australia, Sbu Ndebele, believes the corruption case against him is “weak” and he will be acquitted on charges that he took a bribe of R10 million in return for facilitating tenders in the transport department to the tune of R2 billion.
Ndebele has been accused in the case with his former director-general in the department of transport George Mahlalela; department deputy director Gilbert Thwala; and businessmen Tebogo Mphuthi and Sibusiso Ncube, who is the husband of KwaZulu-Natal local government MEC and ANC provincial treasurer Nomusa Dube.
The men were granted bail of R10 000 each and will appear in court again on July 20.
Three companies owned by Ncube – DataForce Trading, trading as Tasima, Mandate Strategy Roadmap and Delivery, and Sinosa Construction – have also been charged.
Ndebele appeared in the Durban Specialised Commercial Crimes Court on Tuesday, while his co-accused had appeared in Pretoria a day earlier.
According to a preliminary indictment, the group has been charged with corruption, fraud, money laundering and contravening the Public Finance Management Act.
They are alleged to have forced the renewal of Tasima’s contract for running the department’s electronic traffic administration system, eNatis. Proper procedures were allegedly not followed during the process for the R1.9 billion tender.
Ncube, who has also been involved in controversial tenders for municipal water supply and security services in recent years, allegedly made about R50 million through the deal.
At the time of the alleged crimes, Mahlalela was the director-general in the department of transport, Thwala was a deputy director and Mphuti was the former chief executive of Tasima. Ncube (48) is a director in the other three companies, according to court papers.
Both Mahlalela and Ndebele allegedly received millions from Tasima shortly after the contract was renewed, with payments of R10.2 million being made into Ndebele’s Investec bank account from Sinosa’s bank account.
The state alleges that the payments to Ndebele were in fact laundered ones that were a “gratification to him as envisaged by the Corruption Act”.
Ndebele also allegedly failed to disclose the payments from Sinosa, something he was compelled to do as a member of Cabinet in terms of the Executive Members’ Ethics Act.
“Thus‚ the national minister started received [sic] payments totalling R10 264 000 on October 11 2010‚ about nine months after the department he was in charge of as a minister had concluded [without following prescribed procurement processes] a contract with one of [Ncube’s] business entities to the value of R49 551 724.83‚” reads the provisional indictment.
Ndebele, the indictment says, acted “in a manner that amounted to illegal, dishonest, incomplete, unauthorised or biased exercise”.
The money was allegedly paid into Ndebele’s Investec account in a series of payments, none of which was disclosed.
In an affidavit submitted to court, Ndebele said the state had an “alarmingly feeble case against me” and had made “false assumptions” against him in determining that he had acted in a corrupt manner. The former KwaZulu-Natal premier, who will return to Australia to continue work after the Christmas break, told City Press he was “not afraid” of being convicted as he believed the case was “part of a plot”.
“This is part of a plot to destroy me and ruin my reputation. There’s no case here ... no case against me here. I believe I will be acquitted when the matter gets under way,” he said on Friday.
Ndebele declined to comment about who he believed was behind the plot against him but said he would continue in his post and return to South Africa for the trial.
Ndebele, who is also the chancellor of the University of Zululand, questioned the timing of the charges, saying there had been several Auditor-General reports in the years since he had left the transport ministry.
“Why now?” he asked.
Ndebele said he had been contacted in Australia by the SA Police Service and had been aware that he would be appearing in court in South Africa when he left Canberra.
“I am going to clear my name eventually.”
Ndebele (67) came under fire this week after making use of a blue-light convoy on Tuesday night to rush from his home in Durban north to KwaMashu to visit his gravely ill niece Sibongile (39), who later died.
