Rob Rose
26 July 2006
Johannesburg — TIEGO Moseneke, the brother of deputy chief justice Dikgang Moseneke, is lobbing the National Prosecuting Authority to drop nine charges of fraud and corruption involving R40m against him and business associate Gopalang Makokwe.
This case, which first saw the two businessmen clamped in irons in August last year, is one of many headaches facing Tiego Moseneke. Last month, he was struck off the roll of attorneys over money alleged to have gone into his personal account, rather than into his legal trust account.
The two appeared in court yesterday but the case was postponed until August 24 for their attorneys to "make further representations" to state prosecutors.
Yesterday, Moseneke said these representations were aimed at getting the state to drop the charges.
"The charge sheet is founded on a range of averments that can't sustain those charges. We want to have the charges dropped and we want a final decision," he said.
But the charge sheet alleges that the two had conspired to "steal" a company, New Platinum Corporation, by transferring its 1000 shares into their own names -- 501 shares to Moseneke and 499 shares to Makokwe.
Prosecutors claim that New Platinum Corporation was intended to be a subsidiary of an empowerment company called New Diamond Corporation (NDC).
NDC was set up in 1998 and its high-profile shareholders included former SABC CEO Peter Matlare and Incwala chairwoman Dawn Marole. They claim a deal was struck in 1999 at a Hilton Hotel, where all the parties agreed that NDC would own the shares in New Platinum Corporation. Moseneke was entrusted with ensuring this happened as agreed.
Instead, prosecutors claim, he and Makokwe "appointed themselves as the only directors in New Platinum Corporation and registered all the shares of (the company) in their own names".
In 2004, the two then sold 15% of New Platinum Corporation's Tjate project to Jubilee, a company listed on London's Alternative Investment Market exchange, for £1,86m -- "knowing that NDC was the true owner of the shares in New Platinum Corporation".
Moseneke disputes the view that New Platinum Corporation was to have been set up under NDC, saying there were no written agreements and there was no proof of the claims relating to the formation of New Platinum Corporation.
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