/ 15 August 2012

Kaizer Chiefs’ boss Bobby Motaung granted bail

Kaizer Chiefs manager Bobby Motaung.
Kaizer Chiefs manager Bobby Motaung.

His co-accused Herbert Theledi was also granted bail of R50 000. The two face charges of forgery and fraud relating to the building of the Mbombela stadium, in Mpumalanga.

The case was postponed to October 15, according to a comment posted on the social networking site Twitter by Hawks spokesperson McIntosh Polela.

More than 100 people protested outside the court on Thursday, holding up posters reading: "Who killed Jimmy", "What happened to Jimmy" and "Stop Corruption".

Some protesters wore T-shirts bearing his image, while others wore ANC and South African Communist Party T-shirts.

Police arrested two men, one in Naturena, Johannesburg, and another in Cape Town, on Wednesday. A third man later handed himself to the police, Polela said at the time.

Polela confirmed the arrest concerned Lefika Emerging Equity's submission of a forged Sars document in a tender application.

"This has to do with allegations of fraud, forgery and theft to do with the building of the Mbombela Stadium," said Polela, who added that the arrests are part of a wider investigation in which other companies and individuals have been implicated.

Corruption allegations
The Mail & Guardian reported in 2009 that Lefika is co-owned by Motaung and businessman Herbert Theledi. The company has been implicated in a series of corruption allegations concerning the building of the R1-billion Mbombela Stadium in Nelspruit since 2008.

In 2009 Jimmy Mohlala, speaker for the municipal assembly, was murdered outside his home by masked gunmen after threatening to name people involved in corruption concerning the stadium.

That same year, the company's CEO Chris Grib fled the country after it emerged that the South African Revenue Service was investigating Lefika for tax evasion.

It was alleged that Lefika had obtained a tax clearance certificate with the help of an inside man within Sars. The certificate cleared Lefika to bid for 2010 tenders in the Mbombela municipality.

With Grib gone, Motaung and Theledi are left to face the music. – Additional reporting by Sapa