Hawks investigators and state prosecutors are trying to find a way to get three Pakistani nationals back to South Africa so they can face tough questions in the corruption investigation surrounding Tokai businessman Gaston Savoi.
Former Northern Cape Health Department doctors Hamid Shabbir and Shahzad Maqbool, and Maqbool’s wife Saima Shahzad, flew to the Middle East soon after being contacted by the Hawks late in 2009.
Shabbir, however, says his leaving had nothing to do with the case and that he will co-operate should the Hawks or the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) contact him. He says they have not.
According to an affidavit by forensic investigator Trevor White, filed in the high court in Kimberley, the three set up a “bogus” company designed for laundering payments from Savoi’s company Intaka.
Totalling R4.75 million, the payments were purported to be commissions on Intaka water purification plants sold to the health department – then Shabbir’s and Maqbool’s employer.
The two doctors worked together at Kimberley Hospital when the department was buying R112 million in equipment from Intaka. They were neighbours and partners in businesses.
Shabbir, Shahzad – appearing respectively as Accused No 16 and 9 on a charge sheet filed in a Kimberley court in November month – and Maqbool are now living in Abu Dhabi.
“We are working at getting them back. We want them as soon as we can,” NPA spokesman Mthunzi Mhaga said this week.
He would not give details on whether the NPA was applying to the United Arab Emirates for mutual legal assistance or whether arrest warrants had been issued – although well-placed sources say this is so.
Asked about Maqbool, who is not accused, Mhaga said: “I can’t rule out the possibility of more accused being added.
“The investigations are intensifying.”
One of the Hawks’ lead investigators on the case, Clarence Jones, said: “We’re looking at the different means of getting them back into the country. If they are innocent, let them come and explain their part. Let them answer to what they know.”
This weekend Shabbir said he would return to South Africa to face charges if this was requested. He was speaking from Dubai where he said he was practising as an anaesthetist.
“If things have happened in the past, if I have done something wrong, I know I cannot run. I have given the Hawks my word that I am going to co-operate with them.”
Shabbir’s Kimberley legal adviser, Ross Henderson, was also in Dubai this weekend, where he said he was taking statements from the doctor.
He said the state’s case was weak: “If they are going to proceed with the charges as they stand now, they are going to come off second best, and that’s a fact. There’s no way they are going to convince the court that he’s guilty.”
According to Henderson, Shabbir and his wife left South Africa to follow employment opportunities in the Middle East.
“He didn’t leave the country as a result of the case. The impression is being created that he fled the country, but that’s not the case.”
Jones said Shabbir, Maqbool and Shahzad “saw a gap” after he contacted them last year, and they left the country.
The Cape Times was unable to reach Maqbool and Shahzad.
Nine others were arrested in connection with the Northern Cape investigation, including Savoi and Northern Cape Finance MEC John Block, due back in court in March.
Others have been arrested regarding similar corruption charges in KwaZulu-Natal. - Cape Times