Ex-Sars boss is acquitted of graft

Former business partner of one of Jacob Zuma’s wives

AFTER a marathon trial that lasted more than two years, former SA Revenue Service (Sars) deputy commissioner Mandisa Mokwena was cleared on more than 50 charges relating to tender fraud and money laundering involving more than R11 million.

Mokwena, a former business partner of one of President Jacob Zuma’s wives, Thobeka Zuma, left Sars in 2009 under a cloud after disciplinary proceedings were going to be instituted against her.

Judge Sulet Potterill said in the Gauteng High Court in Pretoria yesterday the court may, in certain of the instances, not believe her version of events, but the State had failed to prove its case against her beyond reasonable doubt.

Mokwena hugged her advocate, Arno Venter, when they left the court following a judgment that lasted the whole day.

She declined to speak to Cape Times sister paper the Pretoria News before she stormed out of the court building.

Venter said it had been a long and arduous journey, but he was happy that justice had prevailed.

He declined to say whether a civil lawsuit could follow the outcome of the criminal proceedings.

Mokwena’s co-accused were convicted on several of the charges – mostly fraud and some racketeering charges.

The allegations against her included that she had, between September 2007 up to July 2009, in her capacity as general manager of the Sars risk management division, in a “corrupt manner” ensured that training and research tenders were awarded to her former supervisor at Unisa, his wife and their companies.

This, it was said, was done in return for assistance with her doctoral studies at the University of Venda and other financial incentives.

According to the indictment, Mokwena’s co-accused were all colleagues, associates friends or academic acquaintances. They are Oludele Akinloye Akinboade, who was her external examiner, and also the director of the school of economics at Unisa; his wife Ashuma; another former Unisa employer Emile Djoumessi, who had meanwhile fled and for whom a warrant of arrest has been issued; and Leslie Moonsamy, a former cost centre manager at Sars.

Two former accused, Maria Makofane, a former Unisa professor, and Reneile Malati, Mokwena’s former personal assistant, were acquitted after the State had closed its case earlier.

The State called 43 witnesses over the past two years and most of the accused testified in their defence.

It was found that those accused who were convicted were involved in registering companies and close corporations that were used to fraudulently secure contracts for training and research from the Sars risk management division.

Sars’s procurement processes were manipulated for them to secure the contracts.

Red flags went up in 2009 regarding a suspicious transaction report from one of the banks regarding two payments of large sums of money relating to a company called Ecko Research.

It was established that the director of the company was Phake, a secretary working at Unisa.

Theresa Kannemeyer, of Sars’s anti-corruption unit, investigated the matter and she at the time concluded that Mokwena had a case to answer to.

This led to Mokwena’s suspension and subsequent disciplinary proceedings, which never took place as she resigned beforehand.