Corruption charge for Mabe

documents at the master’s office include correspondence between him and trustee Janet Daniels indicating that he played a role in setting up the trust. Donald Magaoga, another trustee, previously worked as chief financial officer for Mabe’s company, the KG Media group.

Mabe and his co-accused, Letsatsi and his business partner Surprise Kabedi Ramosa, will appear in the Pretoria Commercial Crimes Court on February 14.

Malema was charged with corruption last year for using his Ratanang Trust to solicit kickbacks from Limpopo tenderpreneurs.

Before his arrest this week, Mabe told the Sunday Times that a tender involving the Consolidated Future Growth Trust was before the courts and so he would “not like to entertain any speculation at this stage”.

He has previously denied any involvement in the trust.

Letsatsi referred all questions on the trust to the police before his arrest. Afterwards, his lawyer Zola Majavu said prosecutors believed Letsatsi wrote a memorandum motivating the payments by the social grant agency.

Before the Hawks started investigating late in 2010, the agency’s payments to the trust had also been probed by the Special Investigation Unit.

In a separate case, Mabe is also linked to a lucrative and controversial outdoor advertising contract from the state-owned Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa. The rail agency recently awarded the contract to the Umjanji consortium, which included the Consolidated Future Growth Trust, outdoor media company Provantage and Ramosa’s Surprise SK Investments.

Although there is no overall value on the contract, a copy of it seen by the Sunday Times shows that Umjanji was required to provide a R2-million “demand guarantee” and then also commit to R34-million in capital expenditure. The deal will allow Umjanji to receive a lucrative stream of revenue from handling advertising on the parastatal’s property — including billboards, signs on vehicles and TV sets at taxi ranks.

Provantage boss Jacques du Preez said the company would have to investigate the arrests before commenting. Rail agency spokesman Moffet Mofokeng did not respond to requests for comment.