Bongani Bongo, an African National Congress (ANC) MP and chair of parliament’s home affairs portfolio committee, has been released on R5,000 bail after appearing briefly in the Cape Town Magistrate’s Court on bribery and corruption charges on Thursday.

41-year-old Bongo is a former minister of state security, as well as a close ally of former president Jacob Zuma.

This marks the first such high-profile arrest in recent years.

National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) Western Cape spokesperson Eric Ntabazalila confirmed that the case will next be heard on January 31, 2020.

“Conditions of bail include that the accused must not interfere with any of the witnesses in any way,” said Ntabazalila. According to a statement from Hawks spokesperson Hangwani Mulaudzi, Bongo is also required to give two weeks’ notice to the case’s investigating officer if he intends to make any overseas trips, as part of his “stringent” bail conditions. No photos were allowed to be taken of Bongo inside the courtroom.

Mulaudzi explains in his statement why Bongo was arrested on Thursday morning by the unit’s Serious Corruption Investigation team.

The MP is accused of trying to disrupt a parliamentary inquiry into state capture at power utility Eskom on October 10, 2017.

It is alleged that Bongo, who was minister of state security at the time, “approached an advocate within the commission who was an evidence leader to take sick leave on the day of the commencement of the commission with a view to derail the proceedings”.

“The advocate was offered an open cheque bribe and he consequently alerted his seniors, which culminated in the Hawks investigation,” the statement adds.

According to a statement released by the NPA, Ntuthuzelo Vanara was the advocate who was offered an “unlawful gratification” by Bongo.

“Vanara refused the offer and reported the accused’s conduct,” the statement says.

The inquiry looked into Eskom’s ability to discharge its fiduciary duties, and probed the struggling utility’s financial status and sustainability; its response to former Eskom CEO Brian Molefe being implicated in then public protector Thuli Madonsela’s report on state capture; Molefe’s reappointment at Eskom; and his retirement package.

According to the NPA, the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) in the Western Cape, Advocate Rodney de Kock, has decided to try Bongo’s case in the Western Cape High Court.

Earlier this year, parliament’s joint ethics committee agreed to set up a subcommittee to look into charges of misconduct against Bongo, who was elected as chair of parliament’s home affairs committee in July.

At the time, the ANC insisted its choices for chairpersons of the National Assembly’s committees were “capable comrades” and were not there to serve certain factions.

News24 previously reported that Bongo’s sudden rise to minister of state security in 2017 raised some eyebrows.

Three years before his promotion, he was an unknown MP in Mpumalanga, having only been in Parliament for six months. His allegiance to Zuma went as far as supporting government efforts to ban Jacques Pauw’s controversial book about Zuma.

Zuma was forced to resign as president in February 2018 by the ANC after a nine-year reign marred by corruption allegations and dwindling popularity.

Anti-graft watchdog Corruption Watch welcomed the arrest, saying it points to the commitment of President Cyril Ramaphosa’s administration to tackle graft.

“The fact that a high-profile political figure like Bongo has been arrested is very encouraging,” Corruption Watch executive David Lewis told AFP.

“There is determination on the part of the law enforcement basically to start enforcing the law,” he said.

(Compiled by Daniel Friedman. Additional reporting, News24 Wire and AFP)

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