Johannesburg - Former Gauteng police commissioner Deliwe De Lange made her first appearance for being party to an alleged elaborate fraud scheme involving supposedly dubious tax certificates for a lucrative R84 million tender involving government vehicles.
She was granted R20 000 bail after Magistrate Benita Oswell said De Lange had no previous convictions, had voluntarily handed herself over to the Independent Police Investigation Directorate and had strong ties to the country.
De Lange resigned at the end of October as the province's top cop following a slew of graft allegations which she has vehemently denied.
Sporting a sleek blue two-piece suit and looking calm inside the dock, De Lange, through legal representative Advocate Papie Maluleke, said she would plead not guilty to all four charges.
"I strongly deny the allegations levelled against me...I respectfully say that the State won't provide any credible evidence against me," De Lange asserted, in an affidavit read out in court by Maluleke.
The case was postponed to March next year for further investigation.
She appeared alongside two of her former high-ranking police colleagues: Ramahlapi Mokwena, who is the national divisional commissioner in charge of supply chain management and is a Lieutenant-General; James Ramajalum, who is stationed in Mokwena's office and is a Brigadier; and current Gauteng Deputy Police Commissioner Nombhuruza Napo, who is also as Brigadier.
Accused number 1 is Vimpie Manthatha, who owns Instrumentation Traffic Law Enforcement, which is the company alleged to have fraudulently benefited to the tune of R84m.
All the accused face charges of corruption, fraud, forgery and uttering.
The case relates to a tender which was advertised to install blue lights, sirens and radio equipment in SAPS vehicles.
Instrumentation Law Enforcement was given the tender in 2016, and owner Manthatha allegedly supplied fraudulent tax clearance certificates prior to being the winning bidder.
The three aforementioned Gauteng SAPS officials, the State alleges, "failed to take the necessary steps (to) disqualify (Instrumentation) and thereby misrepresented to the accounting officer of the SAPS and/Or National Treasury that they did not have a duty to ensure that (the winning bidder) was not awarded the contract to supply the equipment... (because) Instrumentation was not tax complaint and/Or submitted fraudulent tax clearance certificate(s)".
All the accused indicated that they would be pleading not guilty to the charges.