Hawks swoop on Durban businessman Thoshan Panday and former KZN top cop in R47m World Cup tender fraud
|Published
Thoshan Panday Picture: DOCTOR NGCOBO
Durban - Businessman Thoshan Panday and a KZN top cop Colonel Navin Madhoe have been charged for fraud, and corruption related to an R47m 2010 Fifa World Cup tender.
His arrest comes just a few short weeks after the Pietermaritzburg High Court turned down his bid to have the charges relating to fraud and corruption related to the temporary police accommodation during the World Cup quashed.
It is alleged that Panday and his co-accused, then policemen Colonel Navin Madhoe and Captain Ashwin Narainpershad, defrauded the SAPS.
Sindisiwe Twala, the Investigating Directorate spokesperson at the NPA, without naming Panday or Ngobeni said that three of the four people were arrested and were expected to appear in the Durban Magistrate’s Court on Friday.
“The last accused has been spotted in Cape Town and will not appear with the others as he has not been arrested yet… The arrested persons have all been charged with multiple counts of Corruption. While three of them face five counts of fraud, two counts of forgery, one count of Uttery. The arrests pertain to manipulation of the tender system of the KwaZulu-Natal Police services in the period 2010 valued at R47 Million,” she said.
In September, The Mercury reported that Panday argued in the high court review application that then former NPA head Shaun Abrahams had acted outside his powers and taken the decision to prosecute him.
Judge Trevor Gorven dismissed with costs Panday’s application to review Abrahams’ decision to prosecute him in several cases.
According to the Mercury, he also criticised Noko’s decision in 2017 to not prosecute Panday despite thousands of documents of evidence and a 400-page forensic report.
The judge said the investigation into the accommodation matter had “gone anything but smoothly and, as a result, spawned three further dockets”.
The main investigation came up when concerns were raised regarding R55m spent on accommodation procurement in 2009/2010.
“Apart from the fact that R55 million was expended that year, only a single agent had been used to obtain quotations. Most expenditure benefited Goldcoast Trading CC, which is allegedly linked to Mr Panday.
“It also appeared that invoices had been subsequently inflated. In addition, it appeared that invoices had been split into amounts of less than R200 000 to avoid the need for a full procurement process and the scrutiny attended on it. The invoices were allegedly approved by Colonel Madhoe, to whom payments were also allegedly made,” the judge said.
Two other cases involved alleged interference with the investigation.
In the first, former KZN Hawks head Major General Johan Booysen said he had been instructed by the then KZN SAPS provincial commissioner General Mmamonnye Ngobeni to abandon the investigation.
A case was opened concerning the alleged actions of Ngobeni.
In the second case, it was alleged Madhoe had, on behalf of Panday, attempted to bribe Booysen to quash the case.
Judge Gorven said that when Abrahams made his decision, he had “a record running to some 3790 pages”, which included invoices, statements of witnesses and a forensic report which concluded that the documents supported charges of fraud and corruption.
“Abrahams could conclude that the decision to prosecute was well founded upon evidence reasonably believed to be reliable and admissible. Whether that material will prove to be sufficient in any prosecution is a matter for a trial court to determine,” he said.
NPA Investigating Directorate spokesperson Sindisiwe Twala said the directorate was studying the judgment as the case fell into the mandate of the new body’s founding proclamation.
“This, however, means that we are not hindered to look into the merits of this case. Testimony was led at the State Capture Commission last year about the capture of law enforcement and how this case falls into that mould,” she said.
“We cannot talk at length about this case until we have taken a decision to charge people.”
Daily News