Former ANC national spokesperson Pule Mabe has briefed his legal team to mount a fresh legal battle for a permanent stay of prosecution of the corruption charges against him by the State, Sunday World has reliably learnt.
Mabe is set to file the papers this week in what is set to be a dramatic twist in the case that has seen him postpone his political life by stepping aside from the ANC NEC.
Our moles in the defence team have whispered that Mabe is going to argue that there were
procedural irregularities and abuse of process in the build-up to him being charged last October.
Alternatively, our insider added, Mabe will go for an application to have the matter struck off the roll.
“The defence will argue that from the outset, this case has suffered from fatal legal and constitutional defects that render the prosecution unsustainable; the argument does meet the minimum legal threshold for the extraordinary relief sought,” said our mole.
Mabe has already hinted at his defence strategy at the SIU Tribunal in an explosive affidavit, where he pokes holes in the case against him.
He cited that the criminal investigation started in December 2020, when the SIU proclamation by President Cyril Ramaphosa came into effect only in April 2021.
Mabe also argues that the SIU expanded its scope irregularly because Ramaphosa’s proclamation was only on the procurement of the vehicles in the 2017 tender. He also questions the integrity of at least one investigator.
Mabe was criminally charged in October last year for alleged corruption amounting to R27-million paid for three-wheeler waste vehicles by the Gauteng provincial government and the Ekurhuleni Metro Municipality.
About 70 of the vehicles, also known as karikis, were delivered to informal waste pickers to bring them into the mainstream of the economy of waste management. The rest lie in ruin at the Suikerbosrand as evidence after the SIU started its work, followed by the NPA.
The karikis birthed by Mabe already anchored the 2020 provincial government gazette for a waste management plan meant to formalise the informal waste industry in the province.
Mabe argued that the version of forensic investigator and chartered accountant Hesti le Roux was devoid of fairness and lawfulness and that it does not pass the rationality test.
According to Mabe, the first blunder is the factual inaccuracy, stating that he was sworn in as a member of Parliament on May 7, 2014, when this happened on May 21, 2014. He claimed this was a deliberate lie to solidify the narrative that he was doing business with the state without declaring while holding public office.
He also took offence at what he calls the conflation of intellectual property ownership and company ownership, saying it was designed to nail him to the cross by all means necessary. When he resigned as director of Enviro Mobi, he remained the owner of the intellectual property rights of the karikis, which was registered in his name from conception.
“Payments made to me by Enviro Mobi were linked to the licensing and intellectual property rights rather than illicit gain. Le Roux failed to distinguish between the two contracts under investigation and other contracts that were not under review. Therefore, the allegation that 36% of the funds were paid to me is deliberately misplaced and misleading to support what appears to be a preconceived conclusion of a fraudulent scheme led by me as a puppet master.”
Mabe accepts receiving payment from the government for the three-wheeler waste vehicles but argues that the payments were solely for the reason that he owns the intellectual property to the vehicles.
Regarding his apparent “control” of the bank account of Enviro Mobi, he is adamant that investigators are shooting in the dark. He told the court he had access to the bank account with the blessings of the directors of the company, who passed a resolution mandating his access within the confines of the law.
Mabe said the investigation was a fishing expedition not supported by facts since to date no one has established any suspicious connection between him and government officials involved in the issuing and awarding of the tender.
He also dismissed finding that the karikis were not registered with eNatis.
