Johannesburg - The alleged elaborate scheme to swindle almost R6 million from the Black Business Council (BBC) emerged in court as the organisation’s former leader, who is charged with theft, pleaded innocence.
Danisa Baloyi, the BBC’s former president, who was also the
chairperson of the Gauteng Tender Board, made her first appearance in the Joburg Specialised Commercial Crime Court on Wednesday on two charges of theft and one of money laundering.
This was for allegedly cheating the business
lobby group out of a R5.7m sponsorship it received from the Airports Company SA (Acsa).
Baloyi appeared with her co-accused Dominic Ntsele, Hawa
Khan and Abubaker Khan - all of whom said in court that they were business people.
The State claims that Baloyi - on behalf of the BBC, which is a non-profit company - requested sponsorship from Acsa in March 2017.
Baloyi allegedly informed
Acsa’s chief executive, Bongani Maseko, that the money should be paid into the account of Merit Energy - of which both Hawa Khan and Abubaker Khan are directors - because the
company had supposedly done work for the BBC.
The State added that Acsa, through Maseko, paid the money into Merit Energy’s account in April and May 2017 in two tranches. Merit then transferred more than R3m into the Incentive Driven Marketing (IDM) account, of which Ntsele is allegedly the sole signatory.
“The money that was paid by Acsa into the bank account of Merit
Energy and further paid into the
bank account of IDM was intended for the BBC, but was never paid into any of the BBC’s accounts,” read the charge.
“Thus, all the accused knew or ought to have known that the money that was received in their different bank accounts was proceeds of
unlawful activities as the said
funds (were) intended for the benefit of the BBC and not for any other entity and/or individual,” the indictment added.
However, all four accused indicated in sworn affidavits they would plead not guilty, denied all allegations against them and would “submit at the trial that the charges stem from internal leadership struggles within the BBC”.
They were all granted bail of R5000 each and will appear in court again in July.
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