Former Northern Cape Health Department acting head Dion Theys has been released on R5,000 bail. He faces charges of contravening provisions of the Public Finance Management Act, fraud, corruption and money laundering in connection with a R16-million personal protective equipment contract.

Former Northern Cape Health Department acting head Dion Theys and his co-accused, the department's chief financial officer, Mosimanegape Gaborone, and its deputy director of finance, Victor Nyokong, were each granted R5,000 bail when they appeared in the Kimberley Magistrates' Court on Monday.

Theys was arrested on Thursday, 24 August, and appeared in the Kimberley Magistrates' Court that day alongside Gaborone and Nyokong. Also in the dock were the department's director of supply chain management, Montgomery Lifa Faas; director of administration in supply chain management, Siyabulela Booi; assistant director of communicable diseases, Goitsemodimo Dibueng Moseki; retired deputy director of nursing, Elizabeth Dibueng Manyetsa; director of the company MKV Investment, Kenyaditswe McDonald Visser; and director of the company Stilofin, Kelebogile Agnes Bogatso.

Faas, Booi and Bogatso were each granted R50,000 bail, while Moseki and Manyetsa were each granted R5,000 bail. However, the State challenged Theys, Gaborone, and Nyokong's bail. They were remanded in custody and released on Monday after the court granted them bail.

According to the National Prosecuting Authority's (NPA's) Northern Cape spokesperson, Mojalefa Senokoatsane, the charges relate to a tender that was awarded during the Covid-19 pandemic between March and October 2020. The accused are charged with contravening the Public...