The state wants leave to appeal the previous judgment which discharged and acquitted suspects from a range of charges regarding the looting and theft of millions of rands from the Department of Human Settlement's project Mohuma Mobung. 

ALSO READ: State to appeal R25 million Estina adjacent case

Adv. Nazeer Cassim (SC), representing the state, argued on Friday that should another court find that there was a misapplication of legal principles and misdirections in the treatment of legal concepts premised on the evidence, this warrants correction. 

Adv. Cassim says this is an important matter that carries far-reaching consequences for how the State deals with state capture issues in the future.

In April 2023, Judge Nompumelelo Gusha ruled that the police's investigation into fraud, corruption, and money laundering was a “comedy of errors” of the millennium, as they failed to handle evidence.

ALSO READ: First State capture fraud case fails in court; suspects acquitted – VIDEO

Gusha delivered a scathing judgment against the NPA's prosecution team led by Advocate Peter Serunye and Advocate Jacyntha Witbooi and the Hawks' investigation team. 

In the 39-page judgment, Gusha explained the state failed to pass even the most basic threshold because there was no evidence to indicate that the accused, including Sharma, and his company, Nulane Investments, among others, had jointly misrepresented the Bank of Baroda, Treasury, and the South African Reserve Bank. She said the application for a discharge could therefore not be refused.

State Prosecutor Adv. Peter Serunye and Adv. Jacyntha Witbooi, among others. Photo: Lucky Nkuyane

“The learned Judge ended her judgment by remarking that the dismissal of charges against the accused would likely ‘invoke a sense of loss if not dejection to the citizenry of this country’.  

“If, in presenting evidence, the State erred, causing a premature end to the trial, then that is something it is constitutionally bound to accept with embarrassment.” 

Cassim said they respectfully submit that these weighty questions of law, which they have raised, cry out to be adjudicated by a higher court.

“The Applicant requests the honourable court to reserve the questions of law in terms of Section 319 of the Act as set out below. Whether, on the proven facts, the conduct of Respondents 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8 prima facie was brought within the ambit of the offences of Contravention of Section 86(1) of the Public Finance Management Act 1 of 1999, Fraud and Money Laundering, as charged respectively. 

“Whether in light of the prima facie evidence that was placed before the Court the decision to discharge the Respondents at the end of the State’s case, contrary to legal precedent, was such an error of law that it constituted a gross irregularity in the trial, and it prejudiced the State and should be set aside. 

The #Vrede Dairy adjacent case is in the Free State High Court for pre-trial finalisation. Ronica Ragavan, Peter Thabethe, and Seipati Dlamini are seen in court and are standing trial with #Gupta lieutenant Iqbal Sharma for fraud involving R25 million for a feasibility study. pic.twitter.com/v82E4M0KtE

— OFM News (@OFMNews9497) June 24, 2022

“Whether the learned trial judge erred in law by misinterpreting, misapplying, or overlooking legal precedent as authority for the discharge of the accused under section 174 of the Criminal Procedure Act; specifically whether the learned judge applied the law in the context of a case involving several accused who may implicate each other,” Cassim argued this morning. 

The state alleges that Nulane Investments had no employees on its books and subcontracted Deloitte to produce the report, for which Deloitte was paid R1.5 million. 

It’s alleged that the only change made to the Deloitte report was to identify Paras Dairy as a suitable implementing partner for the development of a milk processing plant in Vrede.

The people who were charged in the R25 million Nulane case included the so-called Gupta Lieutenant Iqbal Meer Sharma, Peter Mbana Thabethe, Seipati Dhlamini, and Limakatso Moorosi. 

Free State government officials and service providers stand accused of looting and stealing millions from the Free State Agriculture Department. It's alleged that officials – including  Thabethe, Dhlamini, and Moorosi – allowed an illegal upfront payment of R12 million with no proper documents.

OFM News