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 Finance Management Act (PFMA), fraud, corruption and money laundering.

“The case derives from PPE [personal protective equipment] contracts that were unlawfully awarded and paid to companies by the Department of Health without following proper procurement processes, amounting to more than R16-million,” Senokoatsane explained.

The PPE tender case against Theys and Gaborone was provisionally withdrawn on 8 December 2022.

Read more in Daily Maverick: Special Investigating Unit uncovers multimillion-rand Covid-related corruption in Northern Cape

The matter is now back on the roll and ready to go to trial following a concentrated multidisciplinary investigation by the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation and the Special Investigating Unit, working closely with the NPA’s Specialised Commercial Crimes Unit and Asset Forfeiture Unit (AFU).

Also on Monday, the AFU was granted a preservation order in the Northern Cape High Court against the Stilofin director Bogatso. Visser from MKV Investments has opposed the AFU’s preservation order related to his R4.4-million Kimberley property and R2-million 2015 Bentley Continental GT V8 convertible, which were bought with the proceeds of the health department contract.

Theys’ arrest and subsequent appearance came a week after he was convicted and sentenced by the Specialised Commercial Crimes Court for contravening the PFMA, stemming from three leasing contracts totalling more than R13-million.

According to Senokoatsane, Theys concluded three lease agreements with JP Hugo Trading, amounting to more than R13-million, without following proper PFMA prescripts and procurement processes.

That trial began on 29 March 2022 and ended on 16 August 2023. Theys was sentenced to a fine of R150,000 or three years in prison, with R100,000 or two years in prison suspended for five years if he is not found guilty of the same offence during the suspension period.

In March 2022, Theys and Gaborone were suspended after being implicated in fraud and corruption relating to the PPE tender. The Northern Cape Department of Health has been without a permanent head since July 2020.

Theys and his co-accused are due back in court on 16 October. DM