MBOMBELA – Almost two years after first being arrested on charges of fraud, the former head of the Department of Community Safety, Security and Liaison, Mr Thulani Sibuyi walked out of court a free man on Friday.
He was arrested in August 2013 when he was accused, alongside GNT Security and the company’s director Mr Vusi Mashaba, of fraud pertaining to the awarding of a three-year security services contract worth R7 billion in 2011. Sibuyi resigned from his position as head of the department in October of that year, after being arrested on charges of drunk driving in Gauteng.
Last week magistrate Ms Venessa Joubert dismissed the charges against the men in the Nelspruit Regional Court. In April the defence had applied for a discharge after the state closed its case. She ruled that fraud had not been proven and the defendants did not have to defend themselves against the charges as they could not be convicted on the evidence presented by the prosecution.
Joubert ruled that GNT did not have a valid tax clearance certificate from SARS at the time of tendering for the contract. Witnesses testified that a forgery was included in the company’s bid. But, she accepted the expert testimony that this fact was not clear to the naked, even trained, eye.
She accepted the versions of Sibuyi and Mashaba that they did not know the document had been forged and therefore did not intentionally make false representations in the bidding process.
Joubert ruled that Sibuyi, as the HOD and ultimate accounting officer, had shown he had gone beyond what was required of him in ensuring that the bidding process was fair. The magistrate further said the action taken by Mashaba to put his affairs in order upon being made aware of his outstanding taxes to SARS supported his plea statement.
The company employee who had been responsible for attaching the document had become deceased since the tender bid and his role could not be proven. Joubert further ruled that there was no evidence before the court to support that the tender prices were not in line with treasury regulations.
Both Sibuyi and Mashaba declined to speak to the newspaper following court proceedings last week.
