By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
Former African National Congress (ANC) MP Bongani Bongo and four of his co-accused were on Friday discharged by the Mbombela commercial crimes court on fraud and corruption charges.
Bongo and his co-accused appeared in the Nelspruit Commercial Crime Court on Friday, where they were found not guilty, as they were granted Section 174 of the Criminal Procedure Act.
They were charged with six others and four entities with 69 counts of fraud, theft, corruption and contravention of the Public Finance Management Act.
The charges stems from alleged illegal land deals connected to the Mpumalanga Department of Human Settlements amounting to R74 million in 2011.
According to Section 174, if, at the close of the case for the prosecution at any trial, the court is of the opinion that there is no evidence that the accused committed the offence referred to in the charge or any offence of which he may be convicted on the charge, it may return a verdict of not guilty.
NPA spokesperson Monica Nyuswa said, the NPA would proceed with options to appeal Section 174 on a point of law based on the ruling granted to the discharged accused.
“The state is left with six accused in the matter, including corporate entities,” said Nyuswa.
Nyuswa said the remaining accused were former Mpumalanga head of the department of human settlements David Dube, Blessing Singwane, Vusi Magagula, Bongani Sibiya, Elmon Mdaka and Sibongile Mdaka.
The matter has been postponed to August 26 for the continuation of the trial on 14 counts of corruption and eight counts of money-laundering with the remaining of the accused.
This comes after the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) reversed the decision that exonerated Bongo of all corruption-related charges.
Bongo was accused of offering evidence leader Ntuthuzelo Vanara a bribe in Parliament’s 2017 inquiry probing state capture at Eskom.
SCA ruled that Judge John Hlophe made a mistake by discharging Bongo, saying that if mistakes were not made, there would have been a prima facie case.
Hlophe was impeached earlier this year after the Judicial Conduct Tribunal found him guilty of gross misconduct.
He acquitted Bongo, who had pleaded not guilty to two counts of corruption, in terms of Section 174 of the Criminal Procedure Act.
The impeached judge found Vanara’s evidence against the MP did not implicate him in the crime of corruption, as defined by the Prevention and Combatting of Corrupt Activities Act (Precca).
But the NPA argued before the SCA that Bongo would have been convicted if he had testified in the inquiry. In an unanimous ruling penned by acting Judge John Smith, the SCA agreed with the state’s argument.