Deputy National Commissioner for Human Resources Management Lieutenant General Bonang Mgwenya was granted R20 000 bail at the Palm Ridge Magistrates Court today.

She is the 13th accused and joins eleven others, including several other former senior South African Police Service (SAPS) officials and a company, Instrumentation for Traffic Law Enforcement (Pty) Ltd, represented by its sole Director, Vimpie Manthatha. They stand accused of colluding to ensure that a company owned by Manthatha was awarded a contract to install 1550 police motor vehicles with warning lights at a grossly inflated price.

During the procurement process the accused disregarded the competitive bidding process; committing SAPS to R191 million in favour of Manthatha’s company in exchange for benefits they received from Manthatha.

The tap was turned off after R65 million was paid to the service provider, ‘Instrumentation for Traffic Law Enforcement (Pty) Ltd’. Payment of the remaining R22 million was stopped as a direct result of the work of IPID investigators working with SAPS and the Hawks investigators under the leadership of the Investigating Directorate.

Mgwenya today faced charges of corruption, fraud and money laundering for her role in ensuring the contract to supply emergency warning equipment for the in 2017 went to Instrumentation for Traffic Law Enforcement (Pty) Ltd, while she enjoyed an undisclosed close relationship with the company’s owner, Manthatha.

Among other benefits, Manthatha assisted Mgwenya with purchasing a BMW X5 from Zambesi Auto Motors by paying R440 000.00 towards the purchase and negotiated a discount of R284 580.00 on the vehicle with Zambezi Auto. These benefits put Mgwenya in a position to apply for a loan of R255 990.00 to finance the purchase of the BMW X5 retailed at R1 040 570.00. Mgwenya failed to disclose these benefits to her employer.

“IPID remains committed in its constitutional mandate of investigating any alleged police misconduct, once more our seasoned investigators have done a commendable job’’ IPID Executive Director Jennifer Ntlatseng says

‘’We are working hard to clean up law enforcement so that South Africans can be assured that those charged with the responsibility to protect and serve the Nation are in fact doing so and not themselves breaking the law’’ Head of the Investigating Directorate Advocate Hermione Cronje says.

All accused will stand trial from 16 November to the 10 December.

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