‘Luxury hotels, payoffs’
● Draft charge sheet lists string of corruption allegations against Mti
In 10 years, former prisons boss Linda Mti racked up luxury hotel bills of R250,000 – all allegedly paid for by Bosasa in exchange for lucrative tenders.
This is according to the draft charge sheet against Mti, 65, who was once the custodian of the country’s law-breakers.
He handed himself over to the police on Thursday in relation to allegations of corruption at facilities management company Bosasa.
After appearing in the Specialised Commercial Crimes Court in Pretoria on Thursday afternoon, he was granted bail of R20‚000.
In 10 years, former prisons boss Linda Mti racked up luxury hotel bills of R250,000 – all allegedly paid for by Bosasa in exchange for lucrative tenders.
This is according to the draft charge sheet against Mti, 65, who was once the custodian of the country’s law-breakers.
He handed himself over to the police on Thursday in relation to allegations of corruption at facilities management company Bosasa.
After appearing in the Specialised Commercial Crimes Court in Pretoria on Thursday afternoon, he was granted bail of R20‚000.
According to the draft charge sheet, Mti scored nearly R1m worth of benefits – including flights, rental cars, and even payment of a traffic fine – between May 2005 and July 2015.
The fine – amounting to R322 – was paid for Mti in Port Elizabeth in July 2015.
He also allegedly received R119,769 in cash deposits between March 2004 and December 2007 – with the lowest being R2‚500 and the largest R9‚000.
It would also appear that Mti had a penchant for The Paxton Hotel in Port Elizabeth, where his bill over the years came to R73,975, according to the draft charge sheet.
Accommodation at other Port Elizabeth hotels included the Radisson Blu, the Boardwalk Hotel, the Garden Court Kings Beach, The Beach Hotel and the Courtyard Hotel.
The company also allegedly paid for rooms at the Southern Sun The Cullinan in Cape Town, Garden Court Marine Parade in Durban and Hemingways Hotel in East London.
The biggest bill was at the Boardwalk Hotel, which came to R14,757.
The charge sheet states that Mti‚ who was a public officer employed by the correctional services department‚ directly or indirectly accepted or agreed to accept unauthorised gratification from former Bosasa COO Angelo Agrizzi and former Bosasa CFO Andries van Tonder.
He also allegedly scored from Bosasa and two other companies‚ Sondolo IT and Phezulu Fencing.
The three companies are named in the court papers.
The benefits are all linked to tenders for catering, installation of television systems, training prison staff, fencing, surveillance cameras and body scanners at some of the country’s prisons.
In the case of catering at prisons, a three-year R717m contract was awarded to Bosasa on July 20 2004.
But additional kitchens were later added, resulting in an extra R82m being paid out.
The draft charge sheet alleges that Mti failed to ensure compliance with the procurement processes of the correctional services department in relation to a number of tenders‚ which resulted in the Bosasa group of companies being awarded those tenders.
He also faces six counts of failing to comply with the Public Finance Management Act.
The draft charge sheet states that Mti failed to ensure that the department maintained an appropriate procurement and provisioning system that was fair‚ equitable‚ transparent‚ competitive and cost-effective.
To ensure Bosasa secured some of the tenders, Mti is accused of appointing former correctional services CFO Patrick Gillingham to both the bid evaluation committee and the national bid adjudication committee.
Gillingham appeared in court on Wednesday‚ together with Agrizzi, who is a state capture whistleblower, and Van Tonder.
The accused are expected to appear in court on March 27.
Hawks spokesperson Brigadier Hangwani Mulaudzi said the seventh suspect was in the US.
“We have good relations with the US authorities‚ so we believe it will be smooth sailing‚” Mulaudzi said.