A provisional date of 1 June was set for the start of the corruption trial of Lefatshe CEO Coltrane Nyathi and home affairs executive Nkosana Hilita, when the two appeared in court on Friday.
Nyathi and Hilita are currently out on bail of R20 000 and R10 000, respectively. Neither man is allowed access to the property, infrastructure or employees of the department or the State IT Agency (SITA).
The pair was allegedly nabbed by the Hawks while exchanging money in a Pretoria restaurant in August last year. The attempted R200 000 cash transfer is believed by prosecutors to have been a bribe to secure the second phase of the intruder detection and prevention system contract at the Department of Home Affairs.
Security twists
The contract was split into two phases. The first phase required supply and installation of the specified IBM infrastructure and software. The second phase was based on support and maintenance “to IBM's standards” for the 12 months following deployment.
In a press statement following the arrests, home affairs director-general Mkuseli Apleni revealed Lefatshe had concluded phase one. However, he continued, the company was unable to meet the “required standards in delivering on its mandate” in relation to the second phase, and his department had no option but to cancel the contract.
Home affairs and the Hawks theorised it was this decision to halt the contract that may have “allegedly prompted the two persons to act in [the corrupt activities], with a view to restoring the contract to Lefatshe Technology”. Apleni said the contract was valued at R20 million.
Further investigations
The case against the pair has been postponed in the Pretoria Specialised Commercial Crime Court on three occasions, to allow for the Hawks to continue their investigations. This has included enquiries at home affairs, Lefatshe and SITA - the tender facilitator.
Home affairs has already expressed its dissatisfaction with the manner in which SITA handled putting its requirements out to tender. The long-standing dispute over changes made to the requirements before the tender was published in April 2009 is yet to be settled.
Home affairs' acting deputy-director in charge of information systems, Sello Mmakau, says the department is still awaiting SITA's report on its internal investigation into the matter.
The state prosecutor and the defence teams are to engage in a pre-trial conference in the coming weeks to address any matters under dispute. The trial date will be fixed following this routine meeting of the sides.
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