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- Lizeka Tonjeni is on trial for allegedly accepting R160 000 from communications company Digital Vibes while working at the Municipal Infrastructure Support Agent.
- It is the State's version that the money was a bribe from Tahera Mather, to further Digital Vibes' interests.
- It is Tonjeni's version that the payments were for healthcare products bought by Mather as well as two loans.
Did Municipal Infrastructure Support Agent (MISA) employee Lizeka Tonjeni accept a R160 000 bribe from Digital Vibes? Or did she sell healthcare products and get two loans from Tahera Mather?
These are the two versions placed before the Specialised Commercial Crimes Court in Pretoria in the first corruption case related to the controversial company that scored millions in tenders from the government.
Tonjeni was charged with one count of corruption to a R3.9-million tender awarded to Digital Vibes in 2018. She was a project manager in the office of the chief executive at the time.
The State's case
It is the State's case that the payments to Tonjeni were a bribe to further the company's interests.
During the trial, State prosecutor advocate Willem van Zyl took the court through bank statements that proved Tonjeni had received several payments from Digital Vibes while she was overseeing their work for the communications tender.
READ | State shows 10 more Digital Vibes payments to municipal support employee who says she wasn't bribed
Following the flow of funds, Van Zyl placed it on record that money paid to Digital Vibes by MISA, for the tender, was transferred to a number of different accounts, including an FNB account belonging to a company named Composite Trade and Investments.
The bank account for the company was opened by Mather. According to a Special Investigating Unit (SIU) report, Mather is one of the actual owners of Digital Vibes, even though the company was registered in the name of a petrol station manager in Stanger, KwaZulu-Natal.
Mather worked for former health minister Zweli Mkhize when he was the minister of cooperative governance and traditional affairs (Cogta). MISA fell under Cogta.
Between December 2018 and August 2020, eight payments totalling R160 000 were paid to Tonjeni into her Capitec account from the Composite bank account.
The State uncovered a further 10 payments within the same timeframe, totalling R34 700.
Evidence was led from MISA's records that Tonjeni made no financial disclosures between 2018 and 2020.
She made one disclosure that she was the sole director of a consultancy company, which was called Divine Spectrum.
READ | The money was for health products, says woman accused of taking R160K bribe from Digital Vibes
However, it was recorded that no money was made via the company during the period mentioned.
It was made clear that according to MISA, Tonjeni did not conduct any work outside of her employment.
Van Zyl also analysed the flow of the funds and said it could not have been from something selling products to Mather as the amounts paid for products and the money she received did not correspond.
The State argued it was likely the bribe was paid for the referral letter Tonjeni gave Digital Vibes.
Tonjeni's defence
Tonjeni pleaded not guilty to the charge and did not dispute that she had received several payments from Digital Vibes.
On her version, Tonjeni said she had a side business, buying and reselling healthcare products for Zija International.
While working as the project manager, Tonjeni testified that she and Mather shared an office. She said that when she learnt that Mather's mother was sick, she recommended the healthcare products that she was selling, specifically moringa powder.
Tonjeni said Mather then became interested in her other products.
In the space of a year, on Tonjeni's version, Mather bought R94 600 worth of healthcare products.
She also said that Mather gave her two loans of R50 000 each, meant for a farming business she wanted to establish in the Eastern Cape.
Tonjeni admitted that the loan had yet to be paid back, the terms of the loan were verbal and that she had not yet started the business because her mother died.
Tonjeni did not call Mather as a witness to corroborate her version and could not present invoices and receipts from Zija International, which would have correlated with the products sold to Mather.
READ | MISA employee accused of corruption says govt dept did not 'stress' about side hustles
This was because Tonjeni no longer had access to the email account that she used to put in orders at Zija International, and the company closed its South African branch.
She had also argued that the purchasing and selling may not have matched up as she would often buy when there were sales, only to resell at a much later stage.
During her cross-examination, she initially told the court that she would either buy products and pay via electronic fund transfer or use her credit card at the warehouse.
Later, she changed her version to include that she mostly paid for products using cash.
As far as her declarations and disclosures were concerned, Tonjeni's version was that the MISA CEO was aware that she was engaged with outside remunerative work.
Her attorney put it to a witness that Tonjeni had even sold healthcare products to the CEO.
It was argued that this was tantamount to a verbal disclosure and approval.
However, MISA remained adamant that there would have had to have been written approval for remunerative work outside of the government department.
Tonjeni later testified that she did not know she had to disclose the money she was making through selling healthcare products.
The matter was postponed for the defence to get the full transcripts of the trial in order to draft their closing arguments.
