Zandile Gumede's fraud trial to resume at Durban High Court

The fraud and trial case involving the former mayor of eThekwini Municipality Zandile Gumede and the former city manager Sipho Nzuza and 20 others is set to come back for another session at the Durban High Court on Monday. 

The accused are facing multiple charges including money laundering, racketeering, corruption and contravention of the Municipal Finance Management Act and the Municipal Systems Act relating to a R300 million Durban Solid Waste (DSW) tender. 

The trial would be coming back for its second session this year and is expected to conclude in June. As the case comes back it is expected that the presiding officer Judge Sharmaine Balton would make her ruling on whether the State can make reports and annexures available to the defence regarding the ‘unlawful’ appointment of Integrity Forensic Solutions CC (IFS). 

IFS is the forensic company that was outsourced by eThekwini’s Integrity and Investigations Unit (CIIU) after it received a stack of documents anonymously which alleged DSW tender irregularities. As a result of IFS investigations, Gumede and her co-accused were arrested. 

During a cross examination on the last session advocate Jimmy Howse SC teased this court that the probe on the appointment of IFS led to one of the top investigators of CIIU being dismissed. 

Moreover, the defence counsel for Gumede advocate Jay Naidoo had told this court that he wants to re-open his cross examination of the former boss of the CIIU hence he put in the application that he wants the report done by the Masama Holdings to be admitted to this court.

Masama Holdings is the company that was hired by the City to investigate the appointment of IFS. The report said IFS was unlawfully appointed. 

During the hearing of Naidoo’s application, senior counsel appointed by the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA), adv Viwe Notshe said this report by Masama was not part of their docket and it was inadmissible. 

In 2024 the former boss of the CIIU who is a State witness came back to this court after a long break as he had said he was sick and advocate Griffiths Madonsela SC had started cross examining him. The witness, who cannot be named as per court order, is still set to come back for further cross-examination. 

Previously it was highlighted to the court about the financial woes of the accused as they battled with legal fees.

This resulted in Judge Balton advising the [tenth accused] Hlenga Sibisi, Mzwandile Dludla [eleventh accused], and Ilanga la Mahlase PTY (LTD) [accused 12] to look for new counsel to represent them. This is as they indicated that they can no longer afford legal fees, said advocate Paul Jorgensen. 

Judge Balton had said the trio need to get new counsel before the trial resumes on Monday so that they can catch up on the case and when it does, counsel do not ask for postponement. 

The media is still prohibited from naming any State witnesses for safety reasons. 

nomonde.zondi@inl.co.za