A R54m private jet, a R17m office park and a R12m mansion are among assets valued at more than R3bn now under the control of the National Prosecuting Authority’s Investigating Directorate (ID) that could be forfeited to the state.
They belong to people allegedly involved in state capture during the administration of former President Jacob Zuma, have been preserved by the ID under the Prevention of Organised Crime Act (Poca), which prevents the sale of assets allegedly bought with the proceeds of crime.
The assets are now in the hands of curators appointed by the ID and, if their owners are found guilty, they will be permanently forfeited to the state.
This year, the ID preserved about half — or R1.5bn — of the total they now have under restraint. ID spokesperson Sindisiwe Seboka said that of the R3.07bn under restraint, R1.4bn is from cases involving Eskom, R98m involves the Gupta family and an associate, R46m is linked to former ANC MP Vincent Smith and R2.3m fcomes from a case involving a senior police general. All those facing charges have pleaded not guilty.
A few of the Gupta family’s belongings and those of their acolytes are also among the assets in the ID’s hands including the Guptas’ private jet.
The Cessna 680 Citation Sovereign, which has been photographed at airports around the world, including at India’s Dehradun airport, which is the nearest landing site to the family’s hometown of Saharanpur in northern India.
When property belonging to Gupta company Islandsite Investments was attached in June, the ID got its hands on a R17m office park in Midrand; two houses in Saxonwold, Johannesburg, worth R7.5m and R2.8m respectively, a R7m property in Umhlanga Rocks, KwaZulu-Natal, and a R10.5m property in Constantia, Cape Town.
Also preserved this year was the R12m Morningside Sandton home of Gupta lieutenant Iqbal Sharma, whose wife, actress Tarina Patel, showed it off on lifestyle TV show Top Billing.
Sharma was arrested in connection with a R25m contract his company, Nulane Investments, scored from the Free State provincial government, the proceeds of which were allegedly siphoned to the Guptas.
“Based on observations made during this home tour [on Top Billing], it appeared it contained movable assets worth about R500,000, including two [marble] carved elephant statues imported from India, two 14m-long Persian carpets imported from Kashmir in India, antique elephant brass door handles, antique royal lounge chairs imported from the Jaipur Palace in India, tapestries, antique furniture and artwork from an Indian artist known as Kafung,” Rankuoatsana said in an affidavit.
Former ANC MP Smith, who is charged with corruption alongside Angelo Agrizzi, the former COO of Bosasa, had R46m belonging to his company, Euro Blitz 48, and his family trust, preserved in February.
Smith is alleged to have received R800,000 in bribes from Bosasa during his time as chair of the parliamentary portfolio committee that oversaw the department of corrections, which at the time handed Bosasa contracts worth more than R1bn.
SA Police Service technology management head, Lt-Gen Adeline Shezi, her nephew and two of his companies, had R2.3m of their assets preserved this month as part of an investigation into corruption at the SAPS’s technology management division, the ID’s Seboka said.
The lion’s share of preservation orders this year were from Eskom-related contracts. In May, the High Court in Pretoria granted an order restraining R1.4bn in assets belonging to former executives of the state-owned power utility and contractors at Tubular Construction Projects.
Eskom bosses, including senior capital contracts manager France Hlakudi and former group capital executive Abram Masango, had their houses in Mpumalanga attached. Maphoko Kgomoeswana, who allegedly operated his Babinatlou Business Services as a money-laundering operation for the Eskom executives, also had his home attached.
Tubular Construction Projects CEO Antonio Trindade and the company’s former executive adviser, Michael Lomas, were also served with a preservation order. Their spouses’ assets and their family trusts were also restrained.
All of them face charges of fraud, and corruption, and Kgomoeswana faces an additional charge of money laundering. Lomas, a Briton, was arrested in the UK and extradition proceedings are under way, with a hearing set down for tomorrow.
Other assets attached include Trinidade’s R2.5m two-bedroom seaside holiday home in KwaZulu-Natal, Masango’s home in eMalahleni, Mpumalanga, and Hlakudi’s home in Moreleta Park, Pretoria.
Seboka said that Ouma Rabaji, the head of the NPA’s Asset Forfeiture Unit would assist the the ID while a new head is sought after the resignation of Hermione Cronje.
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