ACC NABS LECTURER, NMC SENIOR OFFICER

MBABANE-The Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) has nabbed a UNESWA lecturer and a senior officer of the National Maize Corporation (NMC).

The UNESWA lecturer, who is also a farmer, has been identified as Daniel Vusane Dlamini of Mkhulamini while the officer is Mthobisi Sifiso Dlamini of Nyakeni and is employed as a project manager at NMC. The two are alleged to have colluded in a corrupt act involving a truck trailer belonging to government. The arrest was confirmed by ACC Spokesperson Jabu Phakathi.

She said they were arrested in accordance with the Prevention of Organised Crime Act (POCA), a legislation enacted to investigate and punish corrupt activities, establish the ACC and to provide for other matters incidental to the prevention of corruption. The POCA was put in place in 2018 and since its inception, the State has seized and subsequently forfeited a number of assets that are believed to have been acquired through criminal activities or used as instrumentality for criminal activities. The two individuals are said to have been arrested for allegedly contravening Section 42 of the POCA which details general offences of corruption.

The veracity of the allegations is yet to be tested in court. According to the charge sheet, in the year 2015, the Government of Eswatini bought farming equipment which included tractors, tractor trailers and other farming implements for purposes of hiring them out to farmers in the country. The tractor trailers bought were 50 in number. The charge sheet states that government, through the Ministry of Agriculture outsourced the services of hiring out to the public the said farming equipment (including tractor trailers) to NMC.

The fifty trailers were distributed to 17 rural development areas (RDAs) across the country with each receiving two. About eight of the 50 trailers, the charge sheet states, remained at Ludzeludze Mechanisation Section serving as back-up to those distributed to the 17 RDAs. Each of the eight tractors are said to have had a unique identity number, being serial numbers 2011, 2021, 2084, 2012, 2093, 2082, 2026 and 2095.

“These eight tractors were not meant to be directly hired out to members of the public. When a member of the public is desirous of hiring a tractor trailer from NMC, he or she had to first approach a government revenue office and any Eswatini Post and Telecommunications Office (Post Office) and pay a specific hiring fee and be issued with government general receipt which he or she in turn should present to NMC and thereafter be allocated a trailer for the duration of the hours paid for,” reads part of the charge sheet.

It mentioned that Mthobisi (accused number one) was at all material times employed by NMC as a project manager of the hiring out to the public of the said farming equipment including tractor trailers while Daniel (accused number two) was a farmer. The charge sheet mentioned that in October 2019, Daniel approached NMC for purposes of hiring one of the eight tractor trailers reserved as back-up but his request was declined.

“The request was declined because the said tractor trailers were not designated to be directly hired out to the public and he failed to produce a receipt showing that he had paid for the hire of a tractor trailer,” the charge sheet mentioned. It was stated that after Daniel’s request was declined, Mthobisi allegedly intervened and influenced one Mbuso Owen Bhembe (Tractor Pool Supervisor at NMC) to give him the tractor. Daniel, the charge sheet mentioned, was given tractor trailer number 2095 with the undertaking to bring it back within a period of two weeks, something he never did.

It was alleged that Mthobisi received a total of E11 672 from Daniel and it was deposited on October 30, 2019. I November 7, 2019, January 20, 2020 and February 22, 2020 Mthobisi allegedly received E3 524, E1 370 and E2 524 respectively. The said payments, it was alleged in the charge sheet, were received through Mthobisi’s MTN Mobile Money account. In count one, Mthobisi has been charged with the offence of contravening Section 42 (1) (b) as read with Section 42 (2) (a) (i).

Alternatively, the accused has been charged for contravening the same section as read with sub-sections (b) (ii), (b) (iii) of the Prevention of Corruption Act no.3 of 2006. The charge is that upon or about the month of October 2019 and at or near Ludzeludze area in the Manzini Region the said accused person did unlawfully and directly or indirectly give and or offer to give accused number two and or any other person the advantage of the use of government tractor trailer number 2095.

The charge sheet states that this was for the benefit of the said accused number two and in the performance of his powers and or duties and or functions as the project manager of the Government Farming Equipment Hire Services as outsourced to NMC did carry out such acts which amounted to a breach of trust alternatively an act which amounted to a violation of his legal duty and or set of rules and did thereby contravene the said Act.

In the second count, Daniel has been accused of the offence of contravening Section 42 (1) (a) as read with Section 42 (2) (a) (i) in that he did unlawfully demanded and or accepted or agreed and or offered to accept the advantage of the use of a government tractor trailer number 2095 for his benefit. In count three, the charge sheet states that Daniel has been accused of the offence of contravening Section 21 (1) (a), alternatively read with Section 21 (1) (c) read with Section 35 (i) of the POCA in that on various dates between October 30, 2019 and February 22, 2020 did unlawfully offer an advantage of the total sum of E11 672 to Mthobisi as an inducement to, or a reward for, or otherwise on account of him having performed or assisted in the transaction of obtaining the use of the government tractor without complying with proper procedures for hiring a government tractor trailer.

In the fourth count, Mthobisi has been charged with the offence of contravening Section 21 (2) (c) as read with Sections 35 (1) of the POCA in that being a public officer, he did unlawfully solicit or accept an advantage of a total sum of E11 672 from Daniel as an inducement to, or a reward for or otherwise on account of performing or having performed, alternatively, assisting favouring or having assisted in the transaction of obtaining the use of the trailer without complying with proper procedures and did thereby contravene the Act.

Included in the charge sheet is an alternative to counts three and four which is a charge of the offence of theft and it si stated that upon or about the month of October 2019 at or near Ludzeludze, each of both of the accused persons acting individually or jointly in furtherance of a common purpose did unlawfully and intentionally steal a tractor trailer with the number 2095 valued at E100 000, the property or in the lawful possession of the Eswatini Government and or Ministry of Agriculture.

There is also another alternative to counts three and four and it states that the duo has been accused of the offence of theft by false pretense in that acting individually or jointly in furtherance of a  common purpose they did unlawfully and with intent to defraud and steal, misrepresent to Bhembe, an employee of NMC, that Daniel was borrowing the tractor with the undertaking to return it within a period of two weeks.

 In count five, Mthobisi has been accused of contravening Section 4 (1) (b) as read with Section 76 and Section 89 (1) (a) of the Money Laundering and Financing of Terrorism (Prevention) Act of 2011 as amended. Alternatively, Mthobisi has been accused of contravening Section 4 (1) (c) as read with Section 76 and Sections 89 in that he did unlawfully and wrongfully contravene Section 4 of the Money Laundering and Financing of Terrorism  (Prevention) Act of 2011 as amended. 

The charge sheet states that this charge is for that the Mthobisi allegedly received payment of the sum of E11 672 from Daniel and thereafter concealed and or disguised the true nature, origin, location, disposition, movement or ownership of the said money, well knowing that he had derived it from wrongful and unlawful actions. The two accused persons are said to have made their appearance at the Matsapha Magistrates Court on Friday and were remanded in custody pending their application for bail.

WHAT THE POCA SAYS:

 “Subject to the provisions of subsection (2), a person who directly or indirectly -

(a) demands or accepts or agrees or offers to accept any advantage whether for the benefit of that person or of another person; or,

(b) gives or agrees or offers to give any other person any advantage whether for the benefit of that other person or of another person, is guilty of the offence of corruption and liable on conviction to the penalty prescribed under section 35(1).

(2) For an offence to be committed under subsection (1), the act complained of must cause that person or influence another person to act in a manner –that amounts to the

(i) illegal, dishonest, unauthorised, incomplete or biased; or,

 (ii) misuse or selling of information or material acquired in the course of the exercise, carrying out or performance of any powers, duties or functions arising out of a constitutional, statutory, contractual, fiduciary or any other legal obligation;

(b) that amounts to

(i) the abuse of a position of authority;

(ii) a breach of trust; or

(iii) the violation of a legal duty or a set of rules;

(c) designed to achieve an unjustified result; or

(d) that amounts to any other unauthorized or improper inducement to do or not to do anything.

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