By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
The Pretoria specialised commercial crimes court has provisionally postponed the corruption case against the suspended chief magistrate Desmond Nair to November.
Nair is charged with corruption for having received gratification to the value of R200,000 in security upgrades from African Global Operations/Global Technology Systems (formerly known as Bosasa) in 2016.
The upgrades involve an electric fence, an alarm system, perimeter beams and a CCTV system at Nair’s Pretoria home in Silverton. The state alleges that Nair was granted the upgrades for his influence to act in a dishonest, improper or unlawful manner.
Prosecutor Bheki Manyathi placed it on record that Nair would be making representations on why he should not be prosecuted on a charge of corruption.
Manyathi said the representations would be based on the testimony of two State witnesses during Nair’s misconduct hearing which was held by the Magistrates Commission.
However, the prosecutor said they still needed to obtain the transcript of the second witness’ testimony, former Bosasa employee Richard le Roux, before making the representations.
Le Roux implicated Nair in the State Capture Inquiry.
The State asked for a postponement to 30 November, which is only a provisional date.
This is because if it finds in favour of Nair, the charges will be withdrawn and a court date won’t be necessary. However, if Manyathi is not persuaded by the representations, a date in January 2024 has been set for pre-trial.
Meanwhile Bosasa’s former COO Angelo Agrizzi’s fraud case was deferred to October 4 2023.
Agrizzi is accused of offering a gratification of more than R800,000, on behalf of Bosasa, to former MP Vincent Smith, in exchange for his influence as the then chairperson of parliament’s oversight committee on correctional services.