Three people, including a senior Nelson Mandela University employee, appeared in the Dikeni magistrate’s court on Wednesday, after being nabbed by the Hawks for alleged fraud, theft and money laundering of more than R2m that took place at the University of Fort Hare (UFH) four years ago.
The arrest and court appearance of the trio was confirmed by the Hawks and Fort Hare.
A fourth suspect is expected to appear in the same court on Friday on fraud and money laundering charges.
NMU’s senior director of management accounting and analytics, Simbongile Geqeza, 41, who lives in Gqeberha, was arrested on Tuesday.
He appeared in court on Wednesday alongside UFH’s former investigations and vetting director, Isaac Plaatjies, and Lucretia Claudine Davids-Tladi, a businesswoman from Mossel Bay.
Geqeza, Fort Hare’s former acting chief financial officer, and Tladi were released on R10,000 bail each.
Plaatjies, who is in custody awaiting trial in a murder case and other pending matters relating to a string of alleged offences involving UFH, was also granted R10,000 bail, but will remain in custody because he was denied bail in the other cases.
The three are expected back in court on Friday, when they will be joined by the fourth suspect.
Plaatjies was charged in connection with the latest case this week while awaiting trial at a Qonce correctional facility.
Plaatjies and Davids-Tladi are among the suspects accused of fraud and corruption and a string of violent incidents targeting university officials including vice-chancellor Sakhela Buhlungu and his deputy, Renuka Vittal, and the murders of Buhlungu’s driver, Mboneli Vesele, and fleet manager Petrus Roets.
These accused — nine UFH employees and service providers and their companies — are alleged to have colluded in giving each other tender contracts at the university in return for gratifications.
The total amount paid by UFH to the service providers was more than R172m, with the bulk of it allegedly finding its way into the pockets of the accused university employees.
They were in court on Monday, where they applied to have the case against them withdrawn.
The state had asked for a three-week postponement to enable prosecutors to obtain a “racketeering certificate” from the national director of public prosecutions.
The National Prosecuting Authority confirmed that judgment on the withdrawal application was expected to be delivered on Friday.
Plaatjies, who has already spent two Christmases in custody, has been refused bail several times since his arrest in 2023.
In the latest case, the state alleges that in September 2021, a letter was sent from the finance office of UFH’s East London campus to Standard Bank in the city, requesting the release of R1.4m from the university’s bank account to “a bogus company account owned by a foreign national”.
State prosecutor advocate Mbokazi Radebe told the Dispatch that, on receipt of the request letter, the bank confirmed the signatories with the university.
“The bank phoned the VC in an attempt to confirm, but his phone rang to voice mail. They then phoned the then acting CFO, Mr Geqeza, and he [allegedly] confirmed the letter and the money was released.
“It transpired later that the money was [allegedly] released unlawfully to a company that never did any work for the university, and which was not even in the database of the companies contracted to the university,” Radebe said.
A bank card linked to the foreign national’s account, Radebe said, was allegedly used in Gauteng to purchase a number of iPhones and television sets.
Plaatjies then allegedly convinced Buhlungu to pay over R985,000 to a company belonging to the fourth suspect who had submitted a claim to the university for allegedly helping it and the Hawks in the investigation of the lost R1.4m
“Later it transpired that there was no such work done by the suspect. He [allegedly] did this in collaboration with Mr Plaatjies, who was the head of security and vetting at the university at the time.
“The suspect’s company was also not in the database of the university, while the director of public prosecutions decided to join both these cases as they overlap.”
Radebe said though the payment of the R985,000 was made on June 30 2022 to the fourth suspect, he allegedly transferred R300,000 of that amount to Davids-Tladi’s account the next day. A further R250,000 was transferred to the same account on July 2 2022.
Hawks provincial spokesperson Lieutenant-Colonel Avele Fumba said on Wednesday the two suspects were arrested in different parts of the country, “as part of a thorough co-ordinated and intelligence-driven operation”.
“The investigation was initiated after the university’s management identified financial discrepancies and escalated the matter to the Hawks.
“Through a comprehensive probe, our team uncovered critical evidence that led to the co-ordinated arrest of the suspects,” Fumba said.
UFH spokesperson JP Roodt said the university “acknowledges the recent arrests and expresses appreciation for the efforts of law-enforcement agencies in executing their respective mandates”.
Roodt said two recent preservation and restraint orders granted by the high court in accordance with the Prevention of Organised Crime Act had resulted in assets or properties linked to the suspects accused of fraud being confiscated or placed under curatorship.
NMU spokesperson Zandile Ngwendu said the university was not aware of Geqeza’s arrest and subsequent court appearance, “and thus cannot give comment at this stage”.
“We can, however, confirm that vetting was conducted, as is standard practice in all senior management appointments.”
Daily Dispatch
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