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The state is primed for the start of the trial of three men who allegedly tried to bribe Independent Directorate officials investigating their R69 million police tender corruption case.
Neil Naidoo, a former director in the Eastern Cape community safety department, as well as alleged fraudsters Kenny Govender and Mathew Pillay, who own KJP Traders, allegedly offered Sergeant Suneel Bellochun and Investigating Directorate chief investigator Dylan Perumal R3.5 million to “make the case [against KJP Traders] go away”.
The Independent Directorate, a division of the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA), is investigating KJP Traders for an allegedly corrupt and fraudulent national police tender worth about R69 million that the NPA says the company was involved in.
According to the draft charge sheet in the bribery matter, Naidoo contacted Bellochun in March last year to ask whether the officer was involved in the KJP Traders investigation, to which Bellochun answered in the affirmative.
The charge sheet says Naidoo, who is based in East London along with Bellochun, told the officer that the owner of KJP Traders was “stressed” about the investigation into his company, that the firm’s representatives wanted to meet Bellochun to “iron out issues”.
On 27 March last year, Govender, on behalf of KJP Traders, allegedly flew from Johannesburg to East London to meet Bellochun, Perumal and Naidoo. Perumal noticed that an alleged bribe would be offered, and stopped the meeting “on the pretext that he wanted to obtain legal advice”.
Later that day, Naidoo went to Bellochun’s home and told him that he had a three-way telephone conversation with Pillay and Govender. Naidoo offered an amount of R5 million ‘to make the case go away”.
“Naidoo also promised to deliver a down-payment of R1.5 million to Bellochun and Perumal on the date of the next meeting,” the state alleges.
It further states that, after the NPA’s Makhanda director of private prosecutions office authorised an undercover investigation on 1 April 2022, Bellochun and Perumal met Naidoo four days later, when a final amount of R3.5 million was agreed on.
This amount, the state claims, was confirmed by Pillay at a 6 April 2022 meeting at the NPA’s East London offices, and Pillay allegedly offered to make a direct payment to Naidoo “for coordinating the scheme”.
Eight days later, the NPA alleges, Pillay called Perumal and told him that an amount of R1.8 million would be delivered to him by Naidoo. That same day Naidoo went to Perumal and Bellochun with a box stuffed with R1.5 million in cash.
“It later transpired that Naidoo had taken an amount of R300 000 for himself and delivered only an amount of R1.5 million to Perumal and Bellochun.”
Naidoo, Pillay and Govender face charges of contravening the Prevention of Organised Crime Act, as well as defeating the ends of justice, which they have indicated they will plead not guilty to.
Their trial will run from 15 to 19 January next year in the East London regional court.