POLOKWANE – Former Limpopo MEC for health,  Meriam Segabutla and two co-accused,  Jacob (Johnny)  Lucas – a director of Tshepo Technology Consulting (PTY) Ltd and Peter Erasmus – the director of Trispen Solutions, will appear in the Pretoria high court today (Friday November 14) on charges of fraud.

In a related case four accomplices of  the former MEC were arrested the last week in October and taken to the Pretoria specialised commercial crime court on charges of fraud, corruption and money laundering involving R16 million. The arrests were made by the anti-corruption task team of the directorate for priority crime investigation, the Hawks, following intervention by the national government in Limpopo. The suspects, Gert van der Merwe (39) of Van der Merwe & Associates Incorporated – who was personal attorney of Sekgabutla,  Friday Mushwana (53) – the former Chief Financial Officer of the department, Calvin Masehela (45) and his wife, Meriam (42) – both directors of Impact Plus, appeared in court on charges of fraud, corruption and money laundering.

All the above are accused of defrauding the Limpopo provincial department of health and social development of R16 million in tenders during Sekgabutla’s term of office in 2010.

Segabutla allegedly awarded a tender to conduct a forensic investigation into the implementation of the Provincial Health Information System (PHIS) and acquisition of Cisco switches to Tshepo and Trispen for kickbacks, which included payment of hotel accommodation, flight tickets for family and friends and also payment of school fees for her child. Her attorney (Van der Merwe) worked on both projects as a legal stream team leader. Impact Plus was also paid nearly R3 million for work they had not done.

The four apprehended end October were released on various bail amounts: Van der Merwe, R25 000, and the other three R10 000 bail each.

Segabutla court case postponed again