Nine of the 10 accused in connection with a multimillion-rand toilet scandal at Amathole District Municipality in the Eastern Cape appeared before the East London Magistrates’ Court on Wednesday.

This was after a company called Siyenza Group was awarded a controversial tender to build pit latrines in villages under the municipality.

The toilets were either not built or had substandard work done, resulting in some of them caving into the ground.

The group was charged with fraud, corruption and money laundering in terms of the Prevention of Organised Crime Act during their first appearance in court in November.

The case was on Wednesday postponed to April 24 for further investigation and for the defence to be supplied with copies of the state docket.

The arrest of the 10 accused followed simultaneous intelligence-driven raids which took place in the Eastern Cape, Gauteng, Mpumalanga and KwaZulu-Natal in November.

Read: More arrests looming as 10 appear in court in R600m ‘Siyenza’ toilets scandal

The raids were conducted by a multidisciplinary team which included Crime Intelligence and SA Police Service detectives.

The operation followed a complaint by National Treasury after it transpired that the suspects allegedly colluded in accessing the Amathole District Municipality funds through flaunting of procurement processes, after which they were awarded a contract for improved ventilated toilets.

The Hawks’ preliminary investigation discovered that more than R600 million was to be awarded for the contract, of which R286 million had already been paid to the suspects.

Besides the 10 accused, three companies implicated in the case are also listed, which takes the total number of accused to 13.

The names and positions which were held by the accused at the time of the commission of the offence are:

Accused 1 – Ntsokolo Chris Magwangqana, municipal manager of Amathole District Municipality;

Accused 2 – Nkosinathi Soga, chief financial officer of Amathole District Municipality;

Accused 3 – Mpumelelo Shezi, director of engineering services of Amathole District Municipality;

Accused 4 – Lulama Taleni, director of corporate Services of Amathole District Municipality;

Accused 5 – Ongama Mahlawe, acting chief executive officer of the Municipal Infrastructure Support Agency (Misa);

Accused 6 – Goodman Ntandazo Vimba, executive manager of vendor, legal and contracts management of Misa.

Accused 7 – Bongani Mpeluza, sole director of Siyenza;

Accused 8 – Eddison Vuyani Gaga, sole director of Siyenza Eastern Cape;

Accused 9 – Helen Busisiwe Kwinana-Boadi, chief financial officer of Siyenza;

Accused 10 – Lovemore Kativhu, head of operations for Siyenza;

Accused 11 – Blue Nightingale Trading 397 trading as Siyenza, a registered company with registration number 2005/000948/07, represented by Mpeluza;

Accused 12 – Siyenza Prospectors, a registered company with registration number 2012/119282/07, represented by Mpeluza and Gaga; and

Accused 13 – Siyenza Eastern Cape, a sole proprietor, represented by Gaga.

All the accused were granted R40 000 bail except Soga, who was given R10 000 bail. They are currently all out on bail.



Mpeluza could not appear on Wednesday and his lawyer told the court that he would only be in East London in the afternoon owing to flight delays.

The Asset Forfeiture Unit obtained a forfeiture order on August 21 2018 against him. His house in Lanseria, acquired using R18 million from the sanitation project’s funds, was attached.