Crime: Prosecutor bashes Trifecta

Alleged payments by the Trifecta company to Northern Cape politicians generated a sense of obligation, the high court heard yesterday. “It is a corrupt relationship of give-and-take, give-and-take,” prosecutor Peter Serunye submitted. Judge Mathebe Phatshoane was hearing argument in an acquittal application in the fraud and corruption trial of Northern Cape ANC heavyweights John Block, Alvin Botes, Yolanda Botha and Trifecta director Christo Scholtz. The State accuses Trifecta of entering into a number of lease agreements with three Northern Cape government departments in which rentals, or rental space, were grossly inflated. The accused have pleaded not guilty to the charges against them or their companies. – Sapa