Bid to split VBS case a ‘Stalingrad tactic’
Former ANC Limpopo treasurer and alleged VBS Mutual Bank “kingpin” Danny Msiza has asked the high court to separate charges against him and a coaccused from 10 others implicated in the R2.3bn VBS heist.
On Wednesday, Msiza and co-accused Kabelo Matsepe, a fellow Limpopo ANC member, asked Pretoria high court judge Peter Mabuse to order a separation. The National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) said the request was nothing but a “Stalingrad” tactic.
Msiza is charged with receiving R4.6m from VBS chair Tshifhiwa Matodzi, while Matsepe is accused of using his influence to get various municipalities to deposit money into VBS bank accounts. Matodzi, who was labelled “accused 1”, entered a plea and sentence agreement in July and was sentenced to 15 years in prison.
Former NPA head Shaun Abrahams, representing Msiza and Matsepe, argued that there was a good basis to separate their case. First, there were pending appeals and, second, the charges were unique to the two men.
According to the indictment, Msiza stands accused of 39 charges of contravening the Prevention of Organised Crime Act and the Prevention and Combating of Corrupt Activities Act. Matsepe faces eight charges related to the same legislation.
Primarily, both are implicated in racketeering involving municipalities paying into VBS. However, neither faces charges of theft and fraud, according to Abrahams, and this was why their case should be separated.
However, Abrahams conceded that separation and appeal applications were “substantially prejudicial” to the other coaccused.
Until the current applications and appeals were finalised, said Abrahams, his clients’ “hands are tied”. He also argued that there was “no prejudice to the state” if Msiza and Matsepe’s case was separated.
In response, the NPA’s advocate, Hein van der Merwe, argued that there was no appeal before the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA), only a petition to SCA president Mahube Molemela, which had not yet been decided.
“Criminal trial courts cannot be allowed to be upturned by all these applications only for the purpose of delay,” Van der Merwe argued.
If every accused took some constitutional issue before a trial started, “the criminal justice system will collapse”, he said.
If the cases were separated, witnesses would have to come back twice. Van der Merwe noted the case was so complex that some witnesses “would take weeks” to give testimony.
If Msiza and Matsepe had their own case, this meant calling these same witnesses back and spending weeks on the same testimony again. “We’ve been through a lot to get here,” Van der Merwe said, noting that the case was supposed to start in July.
Mabuse reserved judgment until Friday.