Disgraced National Council of Provinces (NCOP) permanent member Zukisa Faku will be hauled before the ANC’s integrity committee this month to face questions about her R15.6-million fraud and corruption court case.
The East London Magistrate’s Court this week heard that in order for Faku to survive the integrity committee and save her job, the court case would have to be struck off the roll.
This was the defence’s representation to the state’s request that the fraud case be postponed to July 24 for copies of the annexure of the charge sheet.
Faku’s lawyer, Bulelwa Nomjana, argued before presiding magistrate Rochelle Sam that it would be too late by then for her client, who is set to be grilled by party bosses on June 21. The drama played out in court on Wednesday as Faku made her third court appearance since her arrest in March.
She was joined in the dock by her co-accused, Webster Monde Ndodana of Ndodana Consulting Engineers, who the court heard had been asked to step down from the board of the Industrial Development Corporation (IDC) as a result of the corruption allegations against him.
Also in the dock were Ndodana’s wife Mandisa Dawn Ndodana, Bhekisile Jacobs Mthembu, Mkhuseli Collin Ciyo, Pumeza Lujebe, Ivan Krel, Paul Falleyn and Mninawa Mketi.
“Mrs Faku is inconvenienced by this court case. She works in parliament in Cape Town.
“On June 21 she has been summoned to the integrity committee of the ANC to answer as to why she should not be removed from her employment because of this case.
“She stands to lose her employment if this case is postponed to July 24 and not struck off the roll,” Nomjana said.
State prosecutor advocate Diniso Ketani shot down Nomjana’s submission saying: “The accused is considered innocent until proven guilty. If the ANC has taken a decision to discipline her she must go and defend herself. This matter was postponed the last time for final investigation and to give copies of the docket to the defence. We use the same docket to formulate an annexure of the charges. There has not been a single request from the defence for copies of the docket.
“The application to strike this matter off the roll is actually premature because the state was not informed of the application,” Ketani said. Sam agreed with the state saying the court should have been given notice before the application was heard.
Faku was sentenced to three years house arrest last year after she was found guilty on nine counts of fraud relating to misusing her mayoral credit card while she was Buffalo City Metro mayor.
She has appealed the conviction but while waiting for the outcome she was arrested by the Hawks in March. This was after it emerged she had appointed Ndodana’s firm to provide technical and management support services to improve BCM infrastructure and service delivery matters between August 2009 and August 2010 without following a competitive bidding process. The firm was allegedly paid more than R15-million from the mayor’s discretionary fund although the state claims there was no evidence of work having been done. Mthembu is listed in court documents as an “associate of Ndodana Construction Engineers (Pty) Ltd who benefited directly or indirectly”. The matter has been postponed to July 24. — zwangam@dispatch.co.za
Faku’s failed bid to avoid fraud rap
The East London Magistrate’s Court this week heard that in order for Faku to survive the integrity committee and save her job, the court case would have to be struck off the roll.
This was the defence’s representation to the state’s request that the fraud case be postponed to July 24 for copies of the annexure of the charge sheet.
Faku’s lawyer, Bulelwa Nomjana, argued before presiding magistrate Rochelle Sam that it would be too late by then for her client, who is set to be grilled by party bosses on June 21. The drama played out in court on Wednesday as Faku made her third court appearance since her arrest in March.
She was joined in the dock by her co-accused, Webster Monde Ndodana of Ndodana Consulting Engineers, who the court heard had been asked to step down from the board of the Industrial Development Corporation (IDC) as a result of the corruption allegations against him.
Also in the dock were Ndodana’s wife Mandisa Dawn Ndodana, Bhekisile Jacobs Mthembu, Mkhuseli Collin Ciyo, Pumeza Lujebe, Ivan Krel, Paul Falleyn and Mninawa Mketi.
“Mrs Faku is inconvenienced by this court case. She works in parliament in Cape Town.
“On June 21 she has been summoned to the integrity committee of the ANC to answer as to why she should not be removed from her employment because of this case.
“She stands to lose her employment if this case is postponed to July 24 and not struck off the roll,” Nomjana said.
State prosecutor advocate Diniso Ketani shot down Nomjana’s submission saying: “The accused is considered innocent until proven guilty. If the ANC has taken a decision to discipline her she must go and defend herself. This matter was postponed the last time for final investigation and to give copies of the docket to the defence. We use the same docket to formulate an annexure of the charges. There has not been a single request from the defence for copies of the docket.
“The application to strike this matter off the roll is actually premature because the state was not informed of the application,” Ketani said. Sam agreed with the state saying the court should have been given notice before the application was heard.
Faku was sentenced to three years house arrest last year after she was found guilty on nine counts of fraud relating to misusing her mayoral credit card while she was Buffalo City Metro mayor.
She has appealed the conviction but while waiting for the outcome she was arrested by the Hawks in March. This was after it emerged she had appointed Ndodana’s firm to provide technical and management support services to improve BCM infrastructure and service delivery matters between August 2009 and August 2010 without following a competitive bidding process. The firm was allegedly paid more than R15-million from the mayor’s discretionary fund although the state claims there was no evidence of work having been done. Mthembu is listed in court documents as an “associate of Ndodana Construction Engineers (Pty) Ltd who benefited directly or indirectly”. The matter has been postponed to July 24. — zwangam@dispatch.co.za
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