SA Criminal Justice System Falling Apart, ANC Celebrates

31 October 2018

Today, the City of Johannesburg received news that the case against Setheo Engineering has been provisionally withdrawn from the court roll.

The two Directors of Setheo Engineering, Zimbabwean Nationals, were arrested in 2017 after having colluded with City Power officials and received payments exceeding R66 million for work that was never completed in the building of the Eldorado Park sub-station.

They had secured the contract, issued under the previous administration, through fraudulent bank guarantees which let the City to believe they had the balance sheet to handle the project.

An independent forensic investigation was concluded which led to our Group Forensics Unit, led by General Shadrack Sibiya, working with law enforcement agencies and the NPA, ultimately leading to their arrest.

Nearly a year after the arrests we learn that the case has been provisionally withdrawn due to further documentation being required.

The investigating Officer sent information to the priority crime investigation division of the Asset Forfeiture Unit to do analysis of the financials. To date this report has not yet been provided to the Investigating Officer. Secondly, the Investigating Officer struggled to obtain statements from officials in the City but yet they never raised it with our Group Forensics Unit.

Two serious concerns arise from this.

The case was handed over to the SAPS by General Sibiya’s unit in a manner which everything needed for a conviction to be achieved was in place. It was on this basis that a warrant of arrest was issued to substantiate this point. Nearly a year later, the NPA has to provisionally withdraw the case from the roll because they are not prepared.

The City of Johannesburg did not learn of this development through the NPA or law enforcement agencies as we would expect as the complainant. We learnt about it through the ANC former MMC of the Department in which this criminality took place.

Former MMC Mfikoe knew about this provisional withdrawing of the case before anyone else, and spoke proudly of it in today’s Council meeting.

The fact that justice is not served in the hundreds of cases the City of Johannesburg has investigated and handed over to law enforcement agencies is an indictment on our criminal justice system. When cases prepared by a unit led by one of the Country’s foremost criminal investigators are being fumbled, it is no wonder the corrupt walk free in our Country.

It would be interesting to know why the ANC in Johannesburg is both aware of these failures in prosecution of companies, appointed under their term of office, before anyone else. The fact that they can celebrate such travesties of our criminal justice system serve to demonstrate how they are on the side of the corrupt and not the people of our City.

The people of Eldorado Park, 3 years after the contract was awarded, do not have a sub-station. Residents of this area will tell you of the instability of their electricity supply and the need for this critical infrastructure. Over R60 million of public money has been stolen, and more money has to be found to build this critical sub-station. To make matters worse, they are being denied the justice which is owed to every resident in our City to see those who steal from our communities behind bars.

In May this year the ANC released a statement celebrating the acquittal of their former MMC of Housing, Dan Bovu. This case related to the alleged illegals sale of state land to the vulnerable people in our society. As it turns out, this case too was provisionally withdrawn from the roll because witnesses were allegedly paid money and were suddenly unwilling to testify.

Rather than pressing further charges for defeating the ends of justice, corruption and witness interference, the NPA saw fit to provisionally withdraw the case from the roll.

I will be writing to the law enforcement agencies and the NPA, warning them that their continued failure to see justice served for the residents of our City will not go unanswered. If we have to approach the courts to get them to do their work, we will do so.

Issued by Luyanda Mfeka, Director: Mayoral Communications, Office of the Executive Mayor, 31 October 2018