The corruption case against former state security minister advocate Bongani Bongo, accused of attempting to bribe a legal employee at parliament, will be a battle of advocates, which will either see him set free again or sentenced.
Bongo is accused of trying to bribe advocate Ntuthuzelo Vanara, who was the evidence leader of the parliament portfolio committee on public enterprises probing Eskom’s procurement saga in 2017.
It is alleged the former minister wanted Vanara to delay or collapse the parliamentary inquiry probing weakened governance and irregular tenders at Eskom. This included an investigation into CEO Brian Molefe’s tenure.
Vanara is now the Special Investigating Unit’s (SIU’s) chief legal counsel.
When the trial was heard in the Western Cape High Court before the court’s former judge president, John Hlophe, Vanara was the state’s star witness.
Vanara testified: “[Bongo] told me he was requested by the acting chair of the board [Zethembe Khoza] to ask me for assistance. He said that Eskom’s people were worried about incriminating evidence against them and that there would be police officials waiting to arrest them. I asked him what exactly he meant by ‘assistance’.”
He alleged Bongo said he should “name the price” of how much he wanted to delay the inquiry by “falling ill or taking sick leave.”
Hlophe found Vanara’s testimony to be contradictory and questioned his credibility as the main witness. He acquitted Bongo of corruption charges.
The state won an appeal at the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) last year to have Hlophe’s judgment set aside.
This week the case was back in the spotlight at the Cape Town magistrate court as Bongo appeared after the reinstatement of the charge of corruption.
Bongo was released on R5,000 bail. The reinstatement of the case will see the court testing the testimonies of the two witnesses who were present in the private meeting in parliament from which the bribe allegation emanates.
Over the years, Bongo has contested the case, saying it was a “political attack”.
He denied the allegations and said his meeting with Vanara was about a legal discussion “centred on the possible deadlock on the parallel establishment of the state capture inquiry by the parliament.”
Bongo said this week that he was also preparing to sue the state for millions of rand for “unlawful arrest” after he was acquitted in a different case in Mpumalanga last year.
He was charged with fraud, theft, corruption and contravention of the Public Finance Management Act in Mpumalanga relating to land deals in which the provincial government was charged significant “mark-up prices”.
The case was linked to his tenure at the Mpumalanga human settlements department.
Amid legal battles, on the political front Bongo has not been as fortunate since former president Jacob Zuma’s tenure. He was the minister of security services from October 2017 until February 2018. Before then he had headed several parliament committees as an ANC MP.
In 2019, despite the allegation of bribery, the ANC deployed Bongo as MP. He, however, did not make a comeback as MP after the May 2024 elections.
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