Staff Reporter
The Bloemfontein Magistrates Court has postponed the bail hearing for former Transnet board member and Gupta family associate Iqbal Sharma to Tuesday.
This is to allow for all evidence to be put together ahead of the hearing of arguments.
State prosecutor Advocate Peter Serunye told Magistrate Estelle De Lange that the defence had furnished them with their affidavit late and needed more time to confirm the details.
According to Serunye, they only received the applicant’s affidavit without the supporting documents on Sunday evening at around 8pm instead of Saturday as agreed.
He said they got the final affidavit with supporting documents on Monday morning and needed time to verify information on a foreign bank account before the state could argue in court.
Defence lawyer Advocate Stephanus Johannes Coetzee said he faced challenges compiling the information as he had restrictions seeing his client over the weekend.
Earlier today, the court granted bail of R10 000 to former Free State Department of Agriculture and Rural Development head Mbana Peter Thabethe.
Sharma and Thabethe are among 15 suspects facing charges relating to defrauding the department.
They were arrested last Wednesday and made an initial court appearance the following day.
Their other two accomplices, Limakatso Moorosi, also a former head of the provincial agriculture department, and Seipati Sylvia Dhlamini, the department’s former chief financial officer, were each granted bail of R10 000 last week.
The fraud is in connection with a R25-million feasibility study dating back to 2011 that was irregularly granted to Nulane Investment 204 (Pty) Ltd, a company owned and controlled by Sharma.
The company had to provide a report to the department within seven months.
Nulane, however, subcontracted the work to Deloitte Consulting (Pty) Ltd for R1.5 million.
Furthermore, it subcontracted the work already completed by Deloitte to the United Arab Emirates-based Gateway Limited and paid them over R19 million.
From there, the funds were diverted to Islandsite Investments 180 (Pty) Ltd, a company owned and controlled by the Gupta family.
The accused face charges of fraud and money laundering.
The former government officials are also charged with contravention of the Public Finance Management Act.
The fifth suspect in the matter, Iqbal Sharma’s brother-in-law and a representative of Nulane Investments, Dinesh Patel, will formally appear in court on June 15, owing to health reasons.
They are charged together with four companies, Nulane Investments 204 (Pty) Ltd, Wone Management (Pty) Ltd, Pragat Investments (Pty) Ltd and Islandsite Investments 180 (Pty) Ltd.
The other accused are not currently out of the country and are being pursued by South African authorities with the help of Interpol.