THE former welfare minister Abe Williams was found guilty in the Cape High Court on Tuesday on 36 charges of theft and four charges of corruption. The total amount of cash involved was R508254, Judge Roger Cleaver found. The corruption counts relate to money Williams received from computer company Mercedes Information Technologies while serving as welfare minister in former president Nelson Mandela’s government of national unity in 1994. The money was meant to ensure that computers and software for a literacy programme being organised by the welfare department be purchased from Unidata, which was linked to MIT. The corruption counts also relate to money he received from another company, Nisec, in order to extend the pension payout contract from Western Cape Province to Eastern Cape Province.