A Joburg engineering company’s directors, who were allowed by the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) to submit warning statements instead of being arrested, have failed to do so.
NJM directors, Alexander Elias Roditis, Mark Douglas Smith, Vanessa Chungu, Guy Phillip Le Roux, Ronald James Hoy and Raymond Crozier, who were criminally investigated by the police for BEE fraud among others, were supposed to have been incarcerated towards the end of last year.
This was after warrants of arrest were issued against them after the NPA’s former prosecutor, Jacob Tloubatla, who guided the team of police investigating the case, concluded they had a case to answer. Their arrest would have served as a deterrent to would-be BEE fraud
offenders that the state has no tolerance for such offences.
But a few days before they could be arrested, the directors’ lawyer, Ian Small-Smith, struck a deal with Tloubatla’s superiors that his clients should rather submit their warning statements before end of February. However, the directors failed to submit the warning statements.
Tloubatla has since left the NPA, after he was unceremoniously booted from the matter following a dispute in which he insisted that the arrest should be executed.
The instructions to withdraw Tloubatla from the case, attributed to Advocate Hans Wolfardt, were allegedly issued via WhatsApp in December.
NPA South Gauteng spokesperson Phindi Mjonondwane said the police should explain why the warning statements were not submitted since it is their competence.
“We were surprised to receive the docket back from DPCI on 25 February 2024, without warning statements. From our side, after receiving the docket, we allocated it to a prosecutor who is studying the contents to familiarise herself with the matter,” she said.
Mjonondwane further said the previous warrants of arrest were issued prematurely because the investigations were not yet concluded.
“The principle in commercial matters is not that of arresting individuals to conduct investigations, but rather that of investigating to effect arrests.”
Small-Smith said that they did not submit the warning statement because police have not concluded their investigations.
“In terms of the ordinary procedures, the newly appointed prosecutor has not had the opportunity to study a fully investigated docket to give further instructions. We are ready to give our statements once we are formally asked to do so. My various attempts to communicate with the police went unaddressed.
“The plan of the previous prosecutor and police to embarrass my clients with an unnecessary arrest has been spotlighted and foiled,” said Small-Smith.
He said that once the police were ready to receive the warning statements as instructed by the prosecutor, his clients would corporate.
