AP
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Fumbling and flustered, former Pietermaritzburg control prosecutor Zandile Radebe, accused of corruption, battled to explain in the Durban Regional Court on Wednesday why she did not report to her bosses when she was asked to make a R50-million drug trial “go away”.
Radebe faces four charges of corruption relating to allegations that she accepted a bribe to assist in making the drug trial go away in 2006.
It is alleged that she was offered a bribe of R150 000 and the possibility of a magistrate’s post if the docket disappeared.
She is accused of approaching Terence Ncwane, the prosecutor dealing with the trial, and facilitating a meeting between him and Joburg attorney Frans Mashele who wanted to make the deal.
Ncwane reported the matter to police and Mashele and Radebe were arrested in a sting operation. The arrests took place soon after Mashele gave Ncwane and Radebe R109 000 and R39 000 respectively as part payment of a proposed bribe of R150 000 each.
Mashele pleaded guilty and was given a 10-year suspended sentence and fined R500 000.
The drug trial was one of KwaZulu-Natal’s biggest. It ended in 2008 when three members of a syndicate were each jailed for 20 years for dealing in 556kg of methaqualone, a key ingredient in manufacturing mandrax. On Wednesday, Radebe, who has pleaded not guilty, testified that she was under pressure by former Pietermaritzburg chief magistrate Sibaba Ngcobo to facilitate a meeting between Mashele and Ncwane.
“He told me he had a friend from Joburg who wanted to meet Ncwane to discuss the drug case. He said that the presiding officer and the investigating officer in the drug case had already been paid but they had a problem with Ncwane.”
She introduced Mashele to Ncwane and thought her role in the matter had ended.
“I was not going to benefit in any way. When the second meeting was taking place, I was not present, but Ncwane kept calling me asking me to come meet him. I felt guilty because I am the one who had approached Ncwane, so I went.”
After the meeting, Mashele threw a packet into the car and she was then arrested.
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I had no intention of committing a crime. I thought Ncwane and I were on the same page and we were just going to pretend to help those people but the case was still going ahead.”
Prosecutor Barend Groen asked Radebe why she had not reported what Ngcobo had asked her to do to her bosses or the police. Radebe said: “There is no reason. I did not think about it at the time.”
The case was adjourned to January. Radebe is out on bail.
