The protracted court case involving alleged fraudster Andrea Wessels, a former metro finance assistant director and ex-EP Rugby boss Cheeky Watson, among others, is moving ahead at a snail’s pace after the defence counsel in the matter indicated to the court that they needed to peruse some 30 boxes of documents before the trial starts.
The mammoth multimillion-rand fraud case involving the Nelson Mandela Bay’s beleaguered Integrated Public Transport System has been in and out of the Commercial Crimes Court in Port Elizabeth to allow the six parties accused of fraud and money laundering time to prepare their defence.
On Friday Wessels, her company Zeranza and former director of Laphum’ilanga Transport Services Mandisi Mkaza appeared briefly in court to inform the presiding officer in the matter how far they were in their preparations for their trial set to start on December 10.
The pair as well as Wessels’ company Zeranza, Watson, former metro finance department assistant director Nadia Gerwel, as well as former Access Facilities and Leisure Management chief executive Stephan Pretorius, all face charges of fraud and money-laundering of millions of rands relating to the transport system.