Pule Mabe, a former spokesperson for the ANC, and his six co-accused were granted R30 000 bail each after their appearance at the Palm Ridge Specialised Commercial Crimes Court on Wednesday.
Mabe, 44, and his co-accused, who included his wife, Mmatlhekelo Elsie Mabe, 46, appeared in court regarding an R27-million tender that was purportedly illegally given to Mabe’s business in 2017.
The charges against Mabe, Mmatlhekelo, Loyiso Mkwana, 51, Thandeka Mbassa, 59, Matilda Gasela, 65, Abdullah Mohamed Ismail, 50, and Mabe’s business associate Tinyiko Mahuntsi, 46, include fraud, theft, and violations of the Prevention of Organised Crime Act and the Public Finance Management Act.
The businesses of Mabe, KGP Media Holdings, which was formerly known as Enviro Mobi and later as Groen Mintirho (accused eight), and Star Mass Direct, which was formerly known as Kariki Media Holdings (accused nine), are also accused in this case.
The charges stem from alleged corruption involving a 2017 tender worth R27-million that was purportedly illegally given to Mabe’s Enviro Mobi company.
The suspects turned themselves in on Wednesday morning to the serious commercial crime investigation unit of the Hawks in Gauteng.
The state did not object when the suspects, through their attorneys, requested bail during Wednesday’s court proceedings.
Stringent bail conditions
The suspects were granted R30,000 bail each, and magistrate Sharon Soko-Rantao placed stringent requirements on their bail, including attending their court appearances whenever they are scheduled.
Failure to appear will result in an arrest warrant being issued for them, their bail being revoked, and their bail being forfeited to the state, according to Soko-Rantao.
Soko-Rantao gave the accused instructions to hand over their passports to the case’s investigating officer.
The case was put on hold until March 25, 2025, when the accused would be able to see the state’s docket.
Soko-Rantao said the accused should not speak to the witnesses and should be given the state’s list of witnesses in the case.
Over the weekend, Sunday World exclusively revealed that Mabe was scheduled to appear in court on corruption charges.
The Gauteng department of agriculture and rural development awarded Mabe’s company, Enviro Mobi, the contract in March 2017 to supply 200 three-wheel motorised waste collection vehicles known as tuk-tuks.
The tuk-tuks were intended to benefit 58 waste pickers in Ekurhuleni.
However, investigations showed that R27 231.750 was improperly paid to Mabe’s company “without any service rendered”.
The arrest of the seven suspects, according to Hawks national spokesperson Brigadier Thandi Mbambo, comes after a forensic report by the Special Investigating Unit, which found that the department had issued a tender in October 2016 seeking proposals to formalise and integrate waste operatives and waste into the mainstream waste management economy.
R27-million tender
In March 2017, Enviro-Mobi won a tender worth about R27-million, according to Mbambo.
“The contract agreement between the department and Enviro-Mobi stipulated that the department may consider paying on condition that 50% of the work has been completed and no upfront payments may be made to the service provider.
“During the investigation, it was established that the chief director and chief financial officer processed and paid over R25-million to Enviro-Mobi for 200 motorised three-wheelers, though all goods were still in the possession of the service provider.
“It was also discovered that the service provider later issued a letter of demand to the department demanding a further payment of over R9-million for safekeeping, storage, and ancillary services relating to the fleet.
“Also that the company failed to disclose in its bid proposal its affiliation to the politician who was a member of parliament and misrepresented to the department that it had supplied the fleet as well as fleet-related services,” said Mbambo.
There was an investigation by the Hawks after a case was filed at the Johannesburg Central police station in October 2020, she said.
