MBOMBELA – The fraud case against Mpumalanga’s former HOD of community safety, security and liaison, Mr Thulani Sibuyi, and GNT Security, represented by owner Mr Vusi Mashaba, continued in the Nelspruit Regional Court this week. Sibuyi and Mashaba will apply for acquittal in the fraud case against them, totalling R7 billion.
This was confirmed when court resumed on Friday. The defence was of the opinion that the state didn’t have a strong enough case. Magistrate Ms Venessa Joubert said the defence’s application for acquittal should be filed on or before April 22, after which the state would have a week to file its replying documents. Joubert would address the court on the issue of acquittal on May 6 when the case is set to continue. The accused’s bail of R50 000 has been extended to May 6.
The defence’s application will only be granted if there is no evidence on which a reasonable person would find the accused guilty in terms of criminal law.
The state has called a number of witnesses since the trial started in 2013 in an effort to provide sufficient evidence for such a verdict. Lowvelder previously reported that testimony was led by WO Pumlani Zuma of the Hawks. Zuma said the Hawks had been investigating a tender which the department had assigned to GNT Security since 2011 as it was alleged that the tender was assigned to GNT fraudulently.
Dr Vusanani Dlamini, the former HOD of economic development, testified for the state last week and explained how prospective tenders were evaluated during the tender-procurement procedure. He explained that two committees assisted the HOD in electing a service provider: the bid adjudication committee (Bac) and the bid evaluation committee (Bec).
Dlamini was the chairman of Bac, who had to consider recommendations from Bec before making an appointment recommendation to the HOD.
He testified that Bac had seen great differences in the prices quoted by the security companies which submitted tenders. A price negotiation with the prospective service providers was suggested to negotiate middle ground. However, the expiry of the tender did not leave room for these negotiations.
It was therefore decided to use the Private Security Regulatory Authority’s (Prisa) pricing formula as a benchmark.
Dlamini’s testimony was delivered on Thursday. On Friday, the defence indicated that they would file an application for acquittal in April.
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