The trial over the alleged theft of R1-million of State Security Agency (SSA) funds by its former systems administrator, Thuso Oesi, was delayed by two weeks on his request for medical reasons.
Oesi’s trial was to begin on Tuesday at the commercial crimes court in Pretoria. He faces 28 counts of fraud, contravention of the Electronic Communications and Transactions Act, forgery and uttering.
The state accuses Oesi of running a scam from August 2019 to February 2020 by creating bogus payment advances to himself for training courses he did not attend, and of forging senior SSA operatives’ signatures to get approval for these advance payments.
The theft claims against Oesi are in the charge sheet presented to the court by the National Prosecuting Authority.
Oesi’s case comes against the backdrop of the recent release of the sixth and final edition of the Zondo state capture report chaired by Chief Justice Raymond Zondo. It details how the SSA lost about R9-billion in assets — including firearms — because control measures were routinely disregarded from 2009 to 2018.
The charge sheet alleges that Oesi made five fictitious payment advances to himself totalling R898 409 from 29 August 2019 to 14 January 2020, the highest amount being R436 091 and the lowest R45 011.
According to the charge sheet, after the SSA’s payment run for December 2019 and January 2020 had been finalised, Oesi “accessed and amended the payment system” to pay himself a net salary of R80 268.71 in January 2020 and R174 141.31 the following month. His net salary was R46 266.
The state alleges that Oesi increased his net salary “whilst no increase was approved and/or the annual increases, notch payments and back pay for the 2018/2019 year had not as yet been [effected]”.
Oesi’s legal representative presented a medical certificate to the court on Tuesday as proof of his illness. The warrant of arrest has been stayed until 18 July, when the trial is expected to begin. Oesi is out on a warning.