The trial of two Limpopo businessmen accused of corruption related to the Giyani water project has been postponed to October 20th by the Specialised Crimes Court in Polokwane.
The trial has been postponed to allow the accused, Jack Maake and Matome Mathole, to get new legal representatives. They have terminated the services of their lawyer.
Maake and Mathole allegedly tried to bribe an SIU investigator by offering R300 000 to influence the outcome of the investigations. The two were arrested in connection with a R50 million tender to drill boreholes in the Giyani area. The contract was awarded by the Mopani district municipality. The accused are out on R50 000 bail each. The SIU’s Kaizer Kganyago says they’re disappointed by the court’s decision as they were ready for trial.
“We are definitely as the SIU we are disappointed. We were expecting this matter to be on trial because the last time we met everything that is related to the trial was done and everybody indicated they were ready to continue with the trial today. Unfortunately, you can see that there are other things that are at play. But because we respect the law we will just have to abide by what was said in court and we hope that one day this matter will be settled,” Kganyago explains.
The SIU’s Kganyago believes that they have a strong case against the accused.
“As far as the prosecution is concern it did appear that the matter is watertight because we did an entrapment when they wanted to bribe our investigator. We went with the Hawks and they were there when they were delivering the money therefore all that is documented and its ready for the trial. We were informed about the approach and we agreed that it happen and we called the prosecutor to do the entrapment,” Kganyago added.
VIDEO: Two large water projects under the spotlight in Giyani
