By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
The corruption case against former eThekwini mayor, Zandile Gumede and her co-accused continues in the Durban High Court.
Gumede has pleaded not guilty to corruption, fraud and racketeering-related charges in the KwaZulu-Natal High Court in Durban.
On Monday, senior prosecutor Ashika Lucken began the formal process of reading out the indictment which contains more than 2 700 counts relating to fraud, money laundering and racketeering amounting to more than R300 million in Durban Solid Waste (DSW) funds.
Speaking before Judge Sharmaine Balton, Lucken said the State’s evidence included 6 000 bank statements, 200 cellphone records by experts and “other technical data movement reports”.
In entering the indictment into the formal public record, she outlined that Gumede, councillor Mondli Mthembu, and former eThekwini city manager Sipho Nzuza carefully coordinated key officials who siphoned public funds to select companies.
Gumede initiated a pattern of racketeering that placed public funds into the hands of specific companies, Lucken alleged in court on Monday.
She read out parts of the more than 400 pages of the indictment in court where she outlined Gumede was one of the main “role players”.
Gumede would put out instructions to her co-accused, deputy head of strategic and new developments at DSW Robert Abbu, chairperson of the eThekwini Bid Adjudication Committee (BAC) Sandile Ngcobo, Mthembu and Nzuza, Lucken said.
Gumede, Nzuza, Abbu and Ngcobo were the main role players who “formed an enterprise”, according to racketeering charges in the indictment.
The now allegedly corrupt DSW contract was classified as a “special project” where Abbu, on instruction from Gumede and Mthembu, was appointed by Nzuza as head of the special projects, the State alleged.
Proceedings continue on Tuesday, as the accused are yet to state how they plead, with regards to the other charges in the matter.
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Video Courtesy of ENCA.