The investigating officer who charged a KZN businessman with defrauding the education department was recalled to the witness stand.
|||Pietermaritzburg - The investigating officer who charged a KwaZulu-Natal businessman with defrauding the Education Department was recalled to the witness stand on Wednesday.
Alan Nixon, who was the first State witness against businessman Jabulani Mabaso, was recalled by the defence following the State’s closure of their case at the Pietermaritzburg High Court.
This came on the back of the testimony of David Ndlovu, a former senior education official, who claimed he told Nixon at the start of the investigation there was nothing in the agreement between Mabaso and the department that precluded him from making a profit.
Yet Mabaso was still charged with inflating the price of stationery.
Initially it was alleged that Mabaso and his company, Indiza Infrastructure Solutions, defrauded the department of R200 million between 2005 and 2007, when he supplied stationery to schools.
However, the State then made an about-turn and conceded Mabaso was allowed to make a profit on the stationery he provided to the department, and the charges were dropped.
Mabaso was also charged with fraud for not passing on discounts to the department and for producing fake invoices.
The State is still pursuing a conviction on these charges.
Ndlovu said business people were entitled to make a profit from any business with the government, and he had spoken to Nixon about the case and submitted a 20-page affidavit in this regard.
Nixon disputed Ndlovu had informed him that Mabaso was entitled to a profit.
Daily News