ANC bigwig goes to jail
Block was found guilty on charges of corruption and money laundering in 2016
FORMER ANC Northern Cape chairperson John Block has become one of the first senior leaders of the governing party to be successfully convicted of corruption in a democratic South Africa.
It is the end of the road for Block, and his co-accused Christo Scholtz, the chief executive of Trifecta Holdings, after the Constitutional Court yesterday turned down their application to appeal against their conviction and sentence.
They are expected to spend Christmas behind bars as the apex court was their last recourse.
The court ruling, which was delivered by Chief Justice Mogoeng Mogoeng in quorum with nine other judges, indicated that Block’s application was dismissed as it bore “no prospect of success”.
Mogoeng, in quorum with eight judges, also dismissed the application for leave to appeal by Scholtz and his list of Trifecta companies. Block and Scholtz were found guilty on charges of corruption and money laundering in the Northern Cape High Court in December 2016, relating to leases that were concluded between provincial government departments and the Trifecta group of companies.
They were each sentenced to 15 years in prison, whereupon they appealed to the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA).
The appeal was dismissed in August in Bloemfontein, where SCA Judge Eric Leach found that Block had used his influence to coerce officials to conclude irregular leases with Trifecta, in contravention of supply chain management procedures.
In return, Block received gratifications in the form of shares in Trifecta, renovations to his guest house in Upington and cash payments.
Judge Leach found it improbable that Scholtz “knew nothing” about payments made by his company to politicians, or negotiations that were concluded regarding the leases.
Spokesperson for the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA), Phaladi Shuping, said the registrar of the Northern Cape High Court would issue a detention warrants to inform lawyers of the appellants of the decision of the Constitutional Court.
“Once their lawyers have been informed, Block and Scholtz will be given between two to five days to hand themselves over to the authorities.”
Shuping did not believe that it would be necessary to issue a warrant of arrest. “There is no way that Block and Scholtz can refuse to hand themselves over. The NPA did not expect that the matter would remain on the court rolls for more than five years. We trust that they will respect the legal processes as they attended all court proceedings during the course of the trial.”
He said that the process of Block and Scholtz handing themselves over at a correctional services facility in Kimberley would be prolonged if they happened to be out of the country.