Sbu Ndebele back in court for corruption
Former transport minister, Sbu Ndebele, who is facing fraud and money laundering charges, is expected to appear at the Pretoria Commercial Crimes Court on Thursday.
At his last court appearance, Ndebele’s lawyer asked that former transport minister be excused from Thursday’s appearance as he would be in Australia, where he was South Africa’s ambassador.
However, in October, Ndebele resigned as South Africa’s High Commissioner to Australia.
Ndebele is facing 15 charges, including bribery‚ money laundering‚ corruption and fraud for allegedly accepting a bribe of R10 million in 2019, while he was still transport minister from Tasima – the company managing the electronic National Traffic Information System (eNatis).
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Ndebele allegedly accepted the bribe to unlawfully extend the eNatis contract worth more than R2 billion.
Ndebele is accused of accepting over R10 million in bribes related to the extension of a multi-billion rand national vehicle register eNatis project contract.
On December 15, Ndebele appeared in the Durban Commercial Crimes Court over the same matter.
At the time, National Prosecuting Authority spokesperson Advocate Luvuyo Mfaku said that Ndebele was released on R10,000 bail.
However, Mfaku refused to divulge the full amount of money involved, saying he didn’t want to “compromise the investigation”.
The case was postponed so Ndebele could join his four co-accused in the Pretoria Regional Court.
The co-accused in the matter are former Director General of the Transport Department George Mahlalela, Zakhele Thwala, Sibusiso Justin Ncube, and Tebogo Mphuti, who are all out on R10,000 bail each.
They all face charges of fraud, corruption, money laundering and contravening the Public Finance Management Act.