Pretoria High Court judge Peter Mabuse has on Friday explained why he ruled that the VBS trial of former Limpopo ANC treasurer Danny Msiza and his business partner Kabelo Matsepe should be held separately. Mabuse stated that failure to do so would violate the rights of the other accused to a fair trial.
The state has charged 13 people, including Msiza and Matsepe, as collaborators in the bank’s collapse, estimated to have cost the creditors up to R2-billion.
On August 16, Mabuse granted Msiza and Matsepe relief from a separate trial due to their ongoing dispute with the prosecuting authority over further details and disclosure of the state’s case against them. He undertook to state the reasons at a later stage. The NPA intended to appeal the ruling.
In his written reasons on Friday, Mabuse stated that Msiza and Matsepe “quite correctly, averred in their founding affidavits, that the [co-accused] face the likelihood of being prejudiced should their trial not be separated from theirs”.
“They pointed out that from the indictment and the evidence that has been discovered so far, it is evident the separation of trial would curtail the trial of the [co-accused] by many months and the same commences.”
“This matter demands much public interest. The sooner the trial begins, the better,” Mabuse ruled. He added that the co-accused were not seeking to halt proceedings but rather eager for their trial to commence.
He noted that Nhlanhla Kelvin Sipho Malaba, the fifth accused, stressed in his opposing affidavit that separate trials would not harm Msiza and Matsepe’s fair trial rights.
Similarly, Paul Magula, the eighth accused, supported trial separation.
Two others reinforced the position. Msiza and Matsepe have raised legal and procedural questions before the Supreme Court of Appeal about the independence of the criminal investigation into VBS Mutual Bank due to the involvement of Werksmans Attorneys.
The South African Reserve Bank and the Hawks, hired Werksmans to conduct a forensic investigation. However, on February 15, 2019, the Hawks raided Werksmans offices in Sandton, Johannesburg. This raised concerns about the nature of the Hawks and the law firm’s relationship.
According to information received,the Randburg Magistrate’s Court issued a search-and-seizure warrant on February 14, 2019. The next day, Brigadier Zama Basi from the Hawks led a team of 11 officers to confiscate documents related to VBS Mutual Bank from 2008 to 2018.
On February 8, Basi obtained affidavits from 10 witnesses to support the testimony of Werksmans’ director, Bernard Hotz against the VBS accused.
This suggests Basi requested a raid to seize evidence that he helped compile. Notably, the affidavits lack a police stamp or Basi’s force number. Hotz signed his affidavit on February 11, four days after the signing of the supporting affidavits.
Msiza and Matsepe are seeking full records of the Hawks’ process to appoint Werksmans Attorneys and their subcontractors.
The subcontractors are professional services firms Basileus Consilium Professional
Services, Facts and Crowe, which did forensic accounting work on behalf of Werksmans.
