NPA SEIZES KZN BUSINESSMAN THOSHAN PANDAY AND FORMER PROVINCIAL COMMISSIONER LIEUTENANT -GENERAL MMAMONNYE NGOBENI AND 7 OTHERS’ ASSETS WORTH MORE THAN R165 MILLION
17 April 2023
The NPA’s Asset forfeiture unit (AFU) and the Investigating Directorate (ID) have been granted a provisional restraint order of R165 million against Thoshan Panday and his ex-wife, a former Provincial Commissioner, Lieutenant-General Mmamonnye Ngobeni and 7 others. Execution of the court order by the curator appointed by the High Court took place this morning (17 April) in and around Durban. The NPA, with this court order, is hard at work attempting to take the profits out of crime.
The Court granted the NPA the order in chambers on 29 March 2023. The curator was then issued with letters of curatorship by the Master of the High Court on 11 April 2023 and execution took place today. The restraint order is directly linked to the criminal case first enrolled by the ID, S v Madhoe and 8 others in the Durban Magistrates’ Court in October 2021, which has been transferred to the Durban High Court. The restraint order has been granted in terms of Chapter 5 of the Prevention of Organised Crime Act 121 of 1998 (POCA) against property/assets of the nine (9) persons charged and persons or entities they gave gifts to.
The other defendants whose assets have been restrained are Colonel Navin Madhoe, former Section Head of Acquisition in Supply Chain Management (SCM) at the office of the provincial commissioner, Captain Ashwin Narainpershad, formerly of SCM KZN, Businessman Toshan Panday and his family members Arvenda Panday (mother), Privisha Panday(ex-wife), Seevesh Maharaj Ishwarkumar (brother-in-law), Kajal Ishwarkumar (sister) and Tasleem Rahiman (his professional assistant).
The alleged criminal syndicate is accused of acting in common purpose to deprive SAPS of an amount of over R47,3 million through acts of fraud, corruption, forgery, bribery, and money laundering before and during the 2010 FIFA Soccer World Cup (SWC). The order of over R165million is the amount of the proceeds of unlawful activities received by the enterprise, and the individual parties in furtherance of the conspiracy and/or common purpose and/or the commissioning of the crimes.
The state alleges that the 3 former SAPS officials failed to follow the prescripts of the Public Finance Management Act, by amongst others, deliberately delaying applications for procurement authority from the National Office for accommodation for the 2010 SWC and deliberately not following up on invitations they had sent to existing service providers (who charged reasonable rates); thereby causing the need to procure accommodation for SAPS members for the 2010 SWC on an urgent basis and at inflated rates, a mere couple of days before the 2010 SWC was due to start. Their intentional delay in procuring accommodation well in advance of the 2010 SWC, led to an urgent deviation from normal procurement processes which had to be processed in haste by the National Office.
Panday is the sole member of Goldcoast Trading CC. Goldcoast was awarded orders for accommodation for police members deployed within the KZN province during times of unrest from October 2009, at inflated rates. Goldcoast was awarded 80% of the accommodation order for the 2010 SWC and charged SAPS rates which were much higher than other service providers. Panday misrepresented that Goldcoast had secured block bookings in 2008 for the 2010 SWC, which was false. Panday then had to place police members in venues, paid them a low rate and claimed inflated rates from SAPS.
In addition, Goldcoast and four other entities associated with him through family member ownership, received orders approved by Madhoe and Narainpershad for miscellaneous goods required by SAPS members for the 2010 Soccer World Cup, through fraud including cover quoting and forgery.
The five (5) entities alleged to have been controlled by and associated with Panday, were paid the over R47,3 million by South African Police Service between October 2009 and August 2010 (Goldcoast R39 336 283, Valotone R3 515 704, Bravosat R2 079 469, Kaseev Traders R1 552 019 and Unite Mzansi R863 122).
In the application to court, the NPA alleged that Panday was the mastermind of the criminal enterprise. By the end of 2009 he managed to get control of Public Order Policing Unit: Operational Response Service (ORS) deployment accommodation contracts with the help of Madhoe and Narainpershad in KZN SCM (by deceiving the official who usually did procurement for ORS members to be deployed.).
The curator has frozen the bank accounts of all the parties cited and execution of the order has taken place today. The return date of the provisional order is 29 May 2023. Furthermore, the success of obtaining the order is largely assisted by Hawks investigators situated within the ID.
The criminal case linked to the restraint returns to court on 25 August 2023.
***
***
Statement issued by Sindisiwe Seboka, NPA Investigating Directorate Spokesperson, 17 April 2023
