SCA overturns Bongani Bongo bribery and corruption ruling, orders new trial

The Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) has overturned a high court ruling which dismissed the bribery and corruption trial of African National Congress (ANC) MP Bongani Bongo.

On Monday, the SCA delivered its judgment which granted the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) leave to appeal the Western Cape High Court’s February 2021 ruling.

Former judge president of the Western Cape High Court, John Hlophe, who was recently impeached, had dismissed Bongo’s case due to lack of evidence after the former state security minister filed a discharge application.

However, the SCA has since found that “the high court made several mistakes of law”.

ALSO READ: Case against Bongani Bongo postponed to next month

These “mistakes”, therefore, warranted the reversal of the discharge order and a retrial.

This means the corruption case will return to the Western Cape High Court before a different judge.

Bongo was accused of trying to bribe an evidence leader, Ntuthuzelo Vanara, in Parliament’s 2017 inquiry probing state capture at Eskom.

Vanara alleged that the MP had tried to bribe him into halting or collapsing the inquiry by faking an illness and taking sick leave.

SCA judgment

Hlophe acquitted Bongo, who had pleaded not guilty to two counts of corruption, in terms of Section 174 of the Criminal Procedure Act.

The impeached judge found Vanara’s evidence against the MP did not implicate him in the crime of corruption, as defined by the Prevention and Combatting of Corrupt Activities Act (Precca).

But the NPA argued before the SCA that Bongo would have been convicted if he had testified in the inquiry.

In an unanimous ruling penned by acting Judge John Smith, the SCA agreed with the state’s argument.

“I am also satisfied that there are reasonable prospects that the respondent would have been convicted of either the main or alternative charges mentioned in the indictment if the mistakes of law had not been made.

READ MORE: ‘I’m not corrupt and never will be,’ says ANC MP Bongani Bongo

“The evidence led by the state, at the very least, constituted prima facie evidence that the respondent had committed the crime of corruption.

“Mr Vanara’s testimony established that the respondent had offered him gratification to induce him to commit a proscribed act, namely, to feign illness in order to delay or collapse a parliamentary committee inquiry,” the judgment reads.

According to Smith, Bongo had offered Vanara money “in the form of a blank cheque, namely that he was asked to name his price”.

The SCA concluded that Hlophe “erred” in his assessment of the evidence presented by the state during the trail.

Read the full judgment below:

DPP Western Cape vs Bongani Bongo Judgment by Molefe Seeletsa on Scribd

Hlophe also “misconstrued” what constituted the crime of corruption.

“There can, in my view, hardly be a more straightforward and unambiguous account of the unlawful offering of gratification to a public officer in order to induce him to perform a proscribed act.

“That the trial court was oblivious to this unequivocal and overt evidence of the commission of the crime of corruption can only be ascribed to its fundamentally erroneous understanding of the elements of that crime,” Smith continued.

The SCA, therefore, set aside Hlophe’s discharge of Bongo’s case and the matter must be remitted for retrial.

“The state is hereby granted leave to appeal against the refusal by the trial court to reserve the questions of law for determination by this court,” Smith ruled.

Bongani Bongo and co fraud case

Meanwhile, Bongo faces charges in a separate case in the Nelspruit Specialised Commercial Crimes Court in Mbombela.

The ANC MP and 11 other people, including four companies, are facing charges of fraud, theft and money laundering.

The charges stems from alleged illegal land deals connected to the Mpumalanga Department of Human Settlements amounting to R74 million in 2011.

Bongo, who was arrested in 2020 and released on bail of R10 000, and his ex-wife, Sandile Nkosi, will reportedly know their fate on 10 May after asking the court to have their case struck off the roll.

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