Suspended Eastern Cape community safety director, Neil Naidoo, along with businessman Kenny Govender and Matthew Pillay who are accused in a multimillion bribery matter, will face trial in January.
The trio stand accused of attempting to bribe investigating officials from the National Prosecuting Authority’s (NPA) Investigating Directorate with R3.5 million.
The trial has been set down from January 15 to 19, 2024, at the East London Regional Court.
The alleged bribery was reportedly an effort to obstruct the ongoing investigation into their alleged involvement in an R69m national police tender.
The accused individuals are believed to have conspired to halt the progress of the inquiry by bribing the investigating officials, seeking to evade accountability for their alleged actions.
Naidoo faces serious charges of corruption and defeating the ends of justice. Govender and Pillay are also implicated in the same charges.
The Saturday Star reported that National Director of Public Prosecutions Shamila Batohi obtained a preservation order at the Eastern Cape High Court in East London this month to forfeit R1.5m to the State.
Naidoo and Pillay were granted R15 000 bail by the East London Magistrate’s Court earlier this year, while Govender is out on R50 000 bail.
The R1.5m was seized in East London in April after the trio delivered it to two undercover police officers after Naidoo allegedly initiated talks on Govender and Pillay’s behalf in March 2022.
Govender and Pillay handed Pillay R1.8m, but he kept R300,000 for himself and gave the undercover officers R1.5m.
Govender and Pillay’s company KJP Traders was awarded a two-year R36m tender to provide furniture to police stations across the country in 2015.
According to the Saturday Star report, the State alleges that the furniture was of poor and substandard quality and that KJP Traders submitted letters from manufacturers of quality office furniture when bidding for the lucrative contract.
It was later established that the company did not buy the furniture from reputable manufacturers as it claimed.
The Eastern Cape Community Safety and Liaison Department has placed Naidoo on precautionary suspension pending the outcome of its internal investigation and he has not been on duty since his arrest.
-IOL
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