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By IOL Reporter 
6h ago
Cape Town – Former Minister of State Security and ANC MP Bongani Bongo, chairman of Parliament’s home affairs portfolio committee, and his brother Joel were released on bail of R10,000 each at the Court of Magistrates of Mbombela on Wednesday.
They are due to return to court on March 4. The Bongo brothers appeared with 10 co-defendants on 69 charges related to a time when Bongani was an official in the Mpumalanga government.
Four companies are also on the charge sheet for corruption, fraud, theft, money laundering, and violation of the Public Finance Management Law.
The charge dates back to February 2012 and is related to more than R124 million paid by the Mpumalanga government to acquire farms and alleged bribes that came to officials for inflating prices.
This includes the sale and purchase of R37.5 million of a farm in Naauwpoort, Emalahleni, by the Mpumalanga Human Settlements Department, apparently on behalf of the eMalahleni Municipality. The owner of the farm, Petrus Johannes van Tonder, reportedly received just 15 million rand for the farm.
Bongos appeared with Robert Burwise, Patrick Donald Chirwa, Harrington Sizwakhendaba Dhlamini, Blessing Mduduzi Singwane, David Boy Dube, Vusi Willem Magagula, Bongani Louis Henry Sibiya, Elmon Lawrence Mdaka, and Sibongile Mercy Mdaka.
Bongani Bongo faces another corruption charge at Cape Town Magistrates Court, after allegedly attempting to bribe a lawyer for the Parliamentary Inquiry Commission on irregularities in Eskom during his four months as Minister of State Security, since October. from 2017 to February 2018.
Meanwhile, Vice President David Mabuza’s spokesman, Matshepo Seedat, said in a statement that while the alleged irregularities were taking place in Mpumalanga during this term as prime minister of the province, “he would like to categorically deny any involvement and condemns any attempt to drag his name in any form or capacity in the criminal conduct under investigation. ”
“The Vice President, however, welcomes the progress made in the investigation of the Special Investigation Unit on the issue of land acquisition in the Mpumalanga Human Settlements.
“The Vice President calls on the public to allow the law to run its course unimpeded and should extend its support to our law enforcement agencies in the performance of their work, providing them with whatever probative information they have knowledge of to speed up the investigation process. “
MESS
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