Magistrate squashes Scorpion

A Pretoria magistrate has criticised the senior Scorpions officer in charge of the probe into massive fraud and corruption at the Mpumalanga Economic Empowerment Corporation (MEEC) for protecting his subordinate Cornwell Tshavhungwa who was convicted of fraud this week.

The magistrate, AA Lamprecht, severely criticised the head of the Scorpions in Gauteng, Gerhard Nel, questioning his ability to tightly manage a large group of investigators.

He convicted Tshavhungwa on charges of sabotaging an official fraud and corruption investigation, and on two counts of fraud, two counts of perjury and a count of drunk driving.

Tshavhungwa was head of the ‘Sweepers”, which began to investigate fraud at the MEEC in 2003. Instead, in part because of his long-standing friendship with the MEEC’s then-CEO, Ernest Khosa, he covered up the fraudulent granting of loans at the MEEC and kickbacks involving millions of rands.

He was also convicted of fraudulently receiving MEEC money — estimated at just under R700 000 — under the pretext of providing consultancy services, and had his wife and brother employed by the MEEC.

He will be sentenced in March, while Khosa is to appear next month on 45 counts of corruption and theft.

Nel confirmed this week that he is still in charge of the MEEC investigation. ‘I’ve been dealing with the matter and will continue to deal with it,” he told the Mail & Guardian.

Asked to comment on the magistrate’s criticism of his conduct of the case, Nel said he was in court and could not speak. Nel was a witness in the case.

In his judgement, Lamprecht accused Nel of ignoring indications of criminality ‘due to the fact that — he and the accused [Tshavhungwa] are very close”.

He said: ‘Nel’s evidence creates the impression that he was never made to believe that any of the MEEC officials were implicated in the irregularities …

‘Each time he is questioned about how and when he became aware of the accused’s involvement with Khosa and/or the MEEC, he makes it clear that he did not see (or did not want to see) anything wrong with the accused’s conduct.”

Lamprecht said ‘it actually boggles the mind” that Nel could have continued believing Tshavhungwa, and ‘especially why he could not see from the Section 28 application that members of the MEEC might have been involved with the fraudulent granting of loans or the corrupt receiving of so-called kickbacks for the loans so fraudulently received”.

Applications in terms of Section 28 of the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) Act are needed to formally motivate for an investigation.

Lamprecht said the only inference he could draw was that ‘Nel was not entirely objective in his approach during the MEEC investigation”, and that ‘his mindset was subjectively clouded as a result of the trust that he had in the accused”.

The magistrate also slammed Faith Masikhinya, an NPA investigator appointed by Nel and Tshavhungwa, as ‘unimpressive and recalcitrant”, and suggested that her friendship with Tshavhungwa had also undermined her objectivity.

‘Both Nel’s and Masikhinya’s versions fall foul of objectivity due to their friendly relationship with the accused,” said Lamprecht.

This week Rodney Genricks, who blew the whistle on the fraud syndicate operating at the MEEC, said he was deeply concerned that Nel was still heading the investigation.

‘When the Scorpions appointed Tshavhungwa, they threatened to lock me up and accused me of being corrupt. The case went to the commercial crime unit of the South African Police Service and now the Scorpions have taken it back.

‘I’m suspicious and I want to know why they’re suddenly interested in the case again,” Genricks said.

Genricks was MD of Savannah Forestry Equipment and Equi-stock Investments 30, trading as Savannah Africa, which were allegedly used to launder between R5,7-million and R8-million of MEEC funds into Khosa’s personal bank accounts.

He said that by the time he began working with Phillip Dexter, the ANC national executive committee member sent down to troubleshoot as the corporation’s new CEO in May last year, R452-million was missing. The additional losses were ‘all because of the Scorpions’ incompetence,” he added.

Genrick and Dexter, who fired Khosa and exposed the fraud syndicate, have received death threats which are being investigated by the police.