ELEVEN YEARS after allegedly being swindled R500 000, a relentless businessman is still hot on the heels, in pursuit of embattled Public Works and Infrastructure Deputy Minister Bernice Swarts.
Tuwani Mulaudzi is accusing the deputy minister of tricking and defrauding him into paying R500 000 into her personal bank account purported to be going into the governing ANC coffers as a donation for their election campaign.
Mulaudzi further claims that nothing has happened to Swarts years later, despite having reported the matter of theft to the Sunnyside police station with case number 398/9/2013, because she was being protected by the party after his complaints had fallen on deaf ears.
Swarts, who was appointed deputy minister after the March 2023 Cabinet reshuffle by President Cyril Ramaphosa, is a senior official of the ANC and is number 18 on the party’s election candidate list, paving her way to the National Assembly after the May 29 elections if the ANC get the votes.
‘The Star’ has seen bank records proving that Mulaudzi deposited the money into Swarts’s account in 2013, before she was MP, which he thought was an ANC account, towards the governing party’s 2014 Tshwane region elections campaign.
Mulaudzi, in his founding affidavit, said Gauteng Film Commission chief executive officer at the time, Andile Mbeki, along with Swarts, reached out to him for a donation for the party’s election campaign.
However, he alleges the funds never reached the party’s account and he lodged a complaint with the police and some senior members of the ANC.
The National Prosecuting Authority confirmed that the matter was under investigation.
The affidavit, seen by ‘The Star’ reads: “They came to me under the pretext that I was donating the funds to the movement. I must admit I’m not an active member of the ANC, but I have been donating to the movement for a while.
“They then asked me to give them my company profile and I obliged. I even emailed them soft copies… Bernice and Andile provided Absa account details. I did an EFT… it then turned out at a later stage upon inquiry that the account belonged to her and not the ANC region or branch as she had made me believe.”
He added that Swarts had paid him back R40 000 after he kept asking for his money back when he realised he was defrauded.
‘The Star’ is in possession of the bank records obtained by police via an s205 subpoena proving Mulaudzi’s case.
The records include the deposits large over the counter withdrawals from the tellers after he made deposits in five trenches R150 000, R130 000, R120 000, R80 000 and lastly, R50 000 totalling to R530 000 in Swarts’s account.
Swarts tried to interdict this article after being sent questions, but had to withdraw her motion, paving the way for ‘The Star’ to publish it.
Through her attorneys, MPM Attorneys, Swarts denied that she was under any investigation.
“Notwithstanding that our client is under no investigation and neither has she been charged for any criminal violation and neither has she been declared a suspect or an accused person in any matter before the court.
“However, what we find is a malicious companion of harassment waged by segments of the media including ‘The Star’ newspaper.
“Since 8 April 2024, our office has received numerous obscene, vulgar and threatening correspondence from Mr Mulaudzi in which he willfully and intentionally made false, misleading, and malicious statements to the firm, and to our client. Mr Mulaudzi is emboldened to harass our clients and members of our firm. He has ‘The Star’ newspaper in his corner. In other words, ‘The Star’ newspaper has unfortunately or unwittingly enabled Mr Mulaudzi to harass, threaten and insult our client as well as members of our firm.
“We take a dim view of the recalcitrant manner in which he has expressed himself which is manifestly mala fide and malicious… Mr Mulaudzi is perpetuating a false narrative and continues to use it to harass our client through various media channels,” the legal representatives said.
The investigating officer, Matodzi Frederick Sinugo, confirmed in a letter ‘The Star’ has seen and dated April 10, that the docket of fraud, where the deponent Tuwani Matthews Mulaudzi matter is still under investigation.
He wrote: “This is to confirm as the deponent wanted to know the status of the matter.”
Asked why he took so long to lodge his complaint, Mulaudzi said the matter took time to be investigated with two dockets going “missing” in the meantime.
He said he had added a case of crimen injuria against Swarts after in one of their WhatsApp correspondence, ‘The Star’ has seen, Swarts using profanities, calling him by his mother’s private parts.
It read in Afrikaans: “Jou ma se groot g#t, f!%*&n n~$%^r. You must go get bored somewhere else whoever you are bloody motherf*%*@r,” the message said.
Mulaudzi said he had also tried to reach out to senior members of the organisation for them to intervene.
‘The Star’ saw correspondence between Mulaudzi and heavyweights of the party Frank Chikane, Pemmy Majodina, Kgalema Mothlanthe and Gwede Manatshe to name a few.
On April 8, ‘The Star’ sent questions to the National Prosecuting Authority’s (NPA) Lumka Mahanjana, but she never responded after asking in a text when Mulaudzi had opened a case.
However, in a letter addressed to Mulaudzi from the NPA’s Advocate Jansen Van Vuuren and dated April 11 2024, it was stated that the NPA had not made a decision to prosecute.
It reads: “This office has not taken a decision to decline to prosecute Bernice Swarts in respect of the above case docket.
“The investigation officer has been requested to conduct further investigation and proceed with the tracing of Andile Mbeki.”
Mbeki’s phone rang unanswered despite many attempts from ‘The Star’.
The deputy minister is no stranger to controversy. Swarts was nearly sequestrated by businessman Leonard Machanzi over an acknowledgement of debt amounting to R10 million dating back to 2019.
Swarts informed Machanzi about ANC events and he sent her money to support them but could not explain why the money was deposited into her own account rather than the governing party’s.
However, Judge Seena Yacoob overturned an earlier order provisionally sequestrated Swarts after she indicated that she signed the acknowledgement of debt under duress.
The Star