[The former wife of Mandela is stinking rich. But that did not stop her from engaging in fraud. She has however escaped going to jail a number of times now. Jan]

The State’s fraud and theft case against Winnie Madikizela-Mandela and broker Addy Moolman was criticised by a Pretoria judge hearing the pair’s appeal on Monday.

Judge Eberhardt Bertelsmann expressed doubts about the credibility of State witnesses relied on, and questioned whether the prosecution had succeeded in proving some of the charges.

“There is a big lacuna [gap] in the State’s case,” he pointed out to prosecutor Jan Ferreira.

Judgement on the appeal was postponed to July 5. The former African National Congress Women’s League (ANCWL) president was convicted in the Pretoria Regional Court in April last year on 43 counts of fraud and 25 of theft.

She was given an effective four-years sentence — eight months of which was to be served in prison and the remainder under correctional supervision.

Moolman was found guilty of the same charges plus another 15 of fraud. He was sentenced to an effective five years in jail. Both are out on bail pending the outcome of their appeal.

The fraud related to loans obtained from Saambou Bank for non-ANCWL employees using fraudulent letters on league letterheads bearing Madikizela-Mandela’s signature. The letters falsely stated that the loan applicants were employed by the league.

Bertelsmann also questioned Ferreira about the credibility of State witnesses, and why their testimony was considered more reliable than Madikizela-Mandela’s.

On the theft charges, the judge asked how it was possible for Madikizela-Mandela to steal money as she had the authority, as a director of the Funeral and Legal Advice Centre (Falac), to withdraw cash from the company’s account and use it as she pleased.

She used the money to pay an employee, Waki Gosani. While this might amount to recklessness, it did not appear to be theft, Bertelsmann said. One might only be successful in proving theft in the three or four cases where loan applicants had not given permission for the money to be taken from their accounts.

Ferreira argued that a positive outcome for the appellants could discredit the rule of law and lead to the examination of each and every criminal matter for something one of the parties may have missed.

But Bertelsmann said it was the right of every defendant to be acquitted, except if the State managed to prove their guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.

Ishmael Semenya, for Madikizela-Mandela, earlier told the court that her conviction had been based on an unfair trial.

He said his client’s constitutional rights had been infringed upon when the trial court turned down her application for further particulars from the charge sheet.

“It is virtually impossible to imagine the violation of such a fundamental right still yielding a fair trial,” Semenya argued.

Semenya and Dup du Plessis, for Moolman, both contended that the State had failed to make out a case against their clients.

Both appellants blamed one another. Madikizela-Mandela contended she signed the loan application letters blindly, trusting Moolman, while he said he acted on her instructions in deducting money.

Lawyers for Madikizela-Mandela and Moolman asked the court, if it turned down the appeal, to replace their clients’ sentences with correctional supervision.

Semenya asked the court to take into account that Madikizela-Mandela had been seeking to address a pressing social need when she made special arrangements with Saambou for loans to be extended to ANCWL employees.

She had acted out of benevolence in seeking to help individuals who would not normally qualify for loans from the country’s mainstream banks.

Semenya also asked Bertelsmann to keep in mind that his client was a great-grandmother. A jail sentence was therefore not appropriate.

He argued there was no danger of Madikizela-Mandela repeating the offence.

Madikizela-Mandela has, since her conviction, resigned from the ANCWL, and as MP and member of the ANC’s national executive committee. – Sapa

Source: Daily Mail & Guardian
URL: http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3.asp?ao=117600/p>