Zandile Gumede corruption trial gets under way with stern warning ...

Former eThekwini mayor Zandile Gumede at the Durban High Court on Monday. Image: Nqubeko Mbhele

The trial in which former eThekwini mayor Zandile Gumede and 21 others are charged with racketeering, fraud, corruption and money laundering resumed on Monday.

It started with a stern warning from the judge that she would not look kindly on any legal representative withdrawing from the matter because they had not been paid.

Durban high court judge Sharmaine Balton first presided over the matter in March this year. After hearing three weeks of evidence, it was adjourned until Monday and has been set down for another four weeks.

She referred to “all of the letters of withdrawals” she had received during the break and cautioned that she was not going to grant any applications easily.

“This trial will proceed whether you have the funds or not. It will not be adjourned for reasons that attorneys have not been placed in funds,” she said.

So far only two of an estimated 122 witnesses have testified and they are both still under cross-examination.

City Integrity and Investigations Unit (CIIU) head Mbuso Ngcobo was the first witness, but his cross-examination was interrupted when he fell ill.

He has subsequently resigned from his job, saying he had received death threats. It is not clear when the prosecution will recall him to complete his cross-examination.

He testified that the probe into the alleged procurement process relating to the award, and extension, of a R320m waste removal contract, had been initiated after an “anonymous tip-off” received by the unit in an envelope containing a post-it note and official documents relating to the award.

The subsequent investigation had been carried out by Integrity Forensic Solutions (IFS), which was part of a panel of service providers approved by the city manager to conduct investigations on behalf of the unit.

But under cross-examination, he was unable to say why the investigation had been seemingly hurried.

Counsel for Gumede, advocate Jay Naidoo suggested there was a political motive behind her prosecution and questioned how it was possible that the initial tip-off — received just before 4pm on March 7 2013 — was signed off as a full-blown investigation in just one day.

The next witness was CIIU senior manager Shawn Hittler, who testified that he was the one who had opened the envelope from the whistleblower and had then set the wheels in motion which led to the appointment of IFS.

Cross-examining Hittler on Monday, advocate Jimmy Howse, for Sandile Ngcobo, who remains the deputy head of supply chain management in the city, said his client remained in his job five years after the events leading up to him being charged, proving “he has the trust of the municipality”.

He grilled Hittler on why he had destroyed the initial evidence — the envelope and the post-it note — and suggested this was highly irregular.

Hittler said in hindsight he should have kept it.

Also highly irregular, said Howse, was the appointment of IFS, which contravened normal rules and procedures.

He accused Hittler of “jumping the gun” by appointing IFS at an initial cost of R500,000 without doing any preliminary investigation himself and finding out if any money had been paid at all to the service providers.

He said the tender should have also gone out to the panel. “The entire appointment is void because you committed procedural irregularities,” Howse said.

Gumede, as accused No 1, is alleged to be the kingpin of the racketeering “enterprise”. 

With her in the dock are former ANC senior councillor Mondli Mthembu, Ngcobo, city deputy head of strategic and new developments Robert Abbu, former municipal manager Sipho Nzuza, his wife, Cynthia Nzuza, and ANC councillors Mthokozisi Nojiyeza, Sduduzo Khuzwayo and Bhekokwakhe Phewa.

The other accused are the four service providers and their representatives, who allegedly benefited from the waste removal contract. They are:

The state alleges Gumede and others manipulated the award of the contract to the four companies to promote radical economic transformation and to give kickbacks to a “patronage network”, which included community-based contractors, business forums and the MKMVA, who were aligned with the RET faction in the ANC.

The trial is expected to continue on Tuesday and run until August 18.

TimesLIVE