Accused may lose home
Asset Forfeiture Unit suspects Summerstrand property bought with funds for city’s transport system
A Port Elizabeth woman – accused of fraud, theft and money laundering – stands to lose her R3.7m Summerstrand house as the Asset Forfeiture Unit (AFU) believes the property was bought with funds meant for the city’s Integrated Public Transport System (IPTS).
The house at 59 Winchester Way was purchased in cash by a company linked to alleged fraudster Andrea Wessels on May 15 2014.
The Port Elizabeth High Court issued a preservation order on Tuesday for the doublestorey property bought by Zeranza 299.
Wessels, who owns Zeranza 299, has 11 days left to oppose the preservation order.
The order – obtained through the Prevention of Organised Crime Act – is related to a municipal cash transfer of R9.8m on June 10 2014.
The money was paid from the municipality’s IPTS funds to project management company Heerkos Projects CC.
In 2014, Heerkos submitted an invoice to the municipality for the development of an internet-based tender management system.
The municipality never received the system, according to the order.
The municipal transfer of R9.8m was allegedly done by a former assistant director in the municipality’s finance department, Nadia Gerwel, heads of arguments written by AFU official Warren Myburgh state.
From there, R7m had been transferred to the bank account of Dankovista which was owned by Rukaard Abrahams, the son of Wessels.
Then R3.7m was transferred to buy the property in the name of Zeranza 299 to Joubert Galpin and Searle Attorneys.
“The unlawful activities in this matter are fraud, theft and money laundering,” Myburgh stated.
“The property may also be viewed as an instrumentality of money laundering. Siphoned IPTS funds were laundered by acquiring the property.”
Wessels, Gerwel and former EP Rugby president Cheeky Watson, former Laphum’ilanga Transport Services director Mandisi Mkasa and former Access Facilities and Leisure Management chief executive Stephan Pretorius face charges of fraud and money laundering relating to the IPTS.
The case returns to the Port Elizabeth Commercial Crimes Court in November.
Wessels’ lawyer Carolyn Ah Shene-Verdoorn said they had yet to receive the papers.
“We have not been served on this matter. We will consider our options when we are but are unable to comment further at this stage,” she said.
Meanwhile, Abrahams also had a house placed under a preservation order in February.
This property was bought on June 6 2014 for R2.5m allegedly through IPTS funds.
The house in Rubin Crescent, Summerstrand, was registered in the name of Dankovista, of which Abrahams was the sole director.
A court hearing on this is scheduled for November 22.
Wessels also lost a house she bought in Uitenhage in 2013 for R800,000 after it was forfeited to the state.
In the latest preservation order against Wessels, Warrant Officer Clinton Brown states that he was tasked with investigating the purchase of 59 Winchester Way.
“I did not find any legal ground for Heerkos or Dankovista to pay R3.7m to Zeranza or Wessels.
“I belive that the property [was] indeed the proceeds of unlawful activities,” he stated.
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