Six more in dock for mental hospital

THE SOL Plaatje Municipality announced yesterday that the manager of the R2.5 billion Budget Facility for Infrastructure (BFI) water upgrade project, Winston Lucky Moyahi, would take special leave with immediate effect following his appearance in the Kimberley Magistrate's Court this week.

- SANDI KWON HOO

Moyahi appeared alongside his former co-directors of Babereki Consulting Engineers - Lourencia Crause and Louis Adriaan van Niekerk as well as former heads of the Department of Public Works, Motlalepula Elias Selemela and Ruth Palm.

The accused are facing charges of fraud, corruption, money laundering, and contraventions of the Public Finance Management Act (PFMA) in connection with the Kimberley Mental Health Hospital saga.

The mental hospital, which became a symbol of government mismanagement, took 14 years to complete, with final costs ballooning to R2.1 billion.

The accused were arrested by the Hawks' Serious Corruption Investigation team on May 28 in Kimberley, while former company director Edward Charles Pullen Petzer was arrested in Cape Town.

The six individuals are set to join their co-accused in the matter - former Public Works MEC and former ANC provincial chairperson John Block, former departmental HOD Patience Mokhali, and Tshegolekae Motaung, a director of Babereki Consulting Engineers – in court on June 2.

Hawks provincial spokesperson Lieutenant-Colonel Tebogo Thebe said it was alleged that in August 2005, then HOD of the Department of Roads, Transport and Public Works, Motlalepula Elias Selemela, awarded a contract for the construction of the new mental hospital to Vista Park/John Arch Investment.