Swapna Prabhakaran and Mungo Soggot
Court papers have implicated top KwaZulu-Natal government officials in a fraudulent conspiracy involving a businessman who allegedly exposed high- level corruption in the province.
The businessman, Sateesh Isseri, is now allegedly on the state witness- protection programme. He is suing KwaZulu-Natal Premier Ben Ngubane and the province’s head of expenditure for stopping two cheques made out to him for R754 000, in a civil suit that appears to be linked to a police probe into corruption in the province.
Isseri could not be reached for comment, but it is understood he has been in the witness-protection programme for several months. This could not be confirmed because of secrecy provisions surrounding the programme.
The provincial Auditor General, Barry Wheeler, is on holiday and unavailable for comment. But the former national deputy auditor general, Bertie Loots, said Wheeler had passed on to him “serious allegations of corruption” made by Isseri last year.
Loots said he had taken the matter “very seriously” and roped in senior national police officials. He declined to comment further.
Superintendent Hendrik Engelbrecht of the commercial crime squad in Durban said he knew of the investigation involving Isseri’s claims, but could not comment further. “There is evidence on both sides,” he said.
It is understood the officials implicated in the Durban court papers were also involved in the allegations made by Isseri last year. Sources close to the investigation say one of Isseri’s allegations was that officials were channelling taxpayers’ money into Inkatha Freedom Party coffers.
In papers filed at the Durban High Court last week, the provincial government defends itself against Isseri’s civil suit by saying its head of expenditure, TW Buthelezi, and another senior IFP official conspired with Isseri to fraudulently siphon off provincial government funds.
The government’s papers also implicate M Khumalo, who, according to the papers, is a senior employee in the provincial government. The papers say these officials are still employed by the province.
The KwaZulu-Natal provincial government switchboard said Khumalo was not on their records. Neither Khumalo nor Buthelezi could be reached for comment.
The government’s plea, filed on July 3, says: “The defendant [the provincial government] admits the cheques for the amounts of R399 500 and R395 000 were issued, but it avers that the said cheques were issued by persons in the services of the defendant pursuant to a conspiracy of fraud entered into between the plaintiff and those servants of the defendant identified in paragraph 5.”
The chair of the KwaZulu-Natal legislature’s committee on public accounts, Valentin Volker, said he was alerted to the possibility of fraud in this matter 18 months ago. Volker said he is “concerned at the rather slow progress” of the investigation, but did not explain why he himself did not follow it up.
It appears from the court papers that Isseri contracted with the provincial government to supply specialist medical equipment.
The papers say the government was not entitled to have entered into a contract with him without following normal tender procedures. The contract was therefore void and the cheques stopped.
“It was as a consequence of fraudulent misrepresentations made by the aforesaid personas that the defendant issued the said cheques, whereas had it known the true facts, it would not have issued the cheques at all,” the papers say.
The Durban High Court refused to grant summary judgment in favour of Isseri last week, and granted the government leave to defend the action.
The Department of Justice said it was illegal to comment about anyone who is on the witness-protection programme. The official in charge of the programme in Pretoria, Piet Kleynhans, said civil litigants do not qualify for the programme, so if Isseri was being protected it was for another matter. Kleynhans said he had heard of Isseri’s civil case, but was not familiar with any of the details.
Isseri’s Durban lawyer, Louis Hitchcock, refused to comment.
The head of the KwaZulu-Natal finance department, Sipho Shabalala, said he knew of the case but he could not comment because it was sub judice.