Former ANC secretary-general Ace Magashule received R10m shortly after Edwin Sodi’s company was paid R230m for a tender in 2014 to remove asbestos roofing from houses, the Free State high court heard on Wednesday.
Magashule and Sodi are among 13 people and five companies charged with corruption by the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) relating to the R255m tender issued by the Free State’s human settlements department. All have pleaded not guilty.
In entering his plea, Magashule said: “From the onset I pleaded not guilty publicly and I am formally doing so in court today.”
The NPA’s advocate Nazeer Cassim said bank account statements, which are part of documents before the court, detail the money flow and amounts Magashule and several high-ranking officials received after the tender.
Magashule was the premier of the Free State when the tender was awarded to Sodi’s company Black Head Consulting and Diamond Hill Trading joint venture. Diamond Hill Trading was owned by Sodi’s late business partner Ignatius “Igo” Mpambani who was killed in 2017.
Mpambani’s wife, Michele, was the only accused not in court on Tuesday and Wednesday.
Cassim argued the tender was “clear-cut fraud” because it was approved after Sodi’s company submitted a proposal for an unsolicited bid (a closed offer by a sole provider and not open to competitive bidding) to former Free State department of human settlements head Nthimotse Mokhesi.
Mokhesi allegedly received about R600,000 for a deposit on a property in return.
“This tender was a thieves’ picnic,” Cassim told the court. “This is a contract value of R255m. R230m was paid to Black Head Consulting and Diamond Hill Trading joint venture.
“The joint venture, which is the beneficiary of this contract, subcontracted it to the eighth accused [Mastertrade 232] for R44m. Effectively that is 20% of value. Mastertrade subcontracted it to Ori Group for R23m.”
Ori Group was paid R6.3m to do the work and has sued Mastertrade for the remainder.
“The rest of the money was distributed to businessmen, powerful politicians and high-ranking officials,” Cassim said.
A large sum of the money was transferred to Michele Mpambani’s family trust, which then transferred money to the subcontractor.
Cassim implored the court to question the reason for the payments in considering the bank statements.
“Numbers do not lie. The lordship will see how the payments are made when the third witness gives evidence,” he said.
The case has been delayed several times over the past five years, including attempts by the accused to have the charges dropped.
Earlier in proceedings on Wednesday judge Phillip Loubser dismissed a request from one of the attorneys to postpone the case by two months to prepare for the trial.
“Unfortunately, I cannot allow a situation where all the accused and the lawyers are held at ransom for a month or two only because one of the accused and legal representative say they are not ready to proceed,” he said.
The case was postponed to April 23.
Sodi, who is accused of handing out millions of rand in bribes to secure the tender, on Tuesday continued with his fight for state capture commission evidence not to be considered in the criminal trial.
Sodi was among the first arrests emanating from allegations of widespread fraud during the tenure of former president Jacob Zuma, which took centre stage at the state capture commission chaired by former chief justice Raymond Zondo in 2020.
Sodi’s lawyer, Laurance Hodes, read his plea on Tuesday for the criminal trial not to consider evidence from the commission in the criminal trial. Sodi contends that reliance on his testimony and evidence from the commission would render the trial “unfair”.
In 2022, Sodi lodged an application to have evidence from the commission ruled inadmissible but the high court ruled the matter would be decided by the criminal court.
Other accused in the case are Mahlomola Matlakala, Sello Radebe, Abel Manyeki, Thabane Zulu, Sarah Mlamleli, Nozipho Molikoe, Albertus Venter, Moroadi Cholota and Margaret-Ann Diedricks.
Update: April 16 2025
This story has been updated with new information.
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