Three Pretoria High Court officials suspended following fraudulent documents probe

Three officials at the Gauteng Division of the High Court in Pretoria have been placed on precautionary suspension days after the Hawks raided the court during an investigation into the issuance of fraudulent notices of motion. 

On Friday, 16 May, the Office of the Chief Justice (OCJ) said the three officials, whose identities have not yet been released, are suspects in an “ongoing investigation by the South African Police Service’s Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation [the Hawks] looking into fraudulent and corrupt activities in the court”.

“The OCJ takes a zero-tolerance approach to fraud and corruption and the officials were therefore placed on precautionary suspension to allow investigations to proceed without being compromised.”

On Tuesday, the Hawks conducted a search and seizure operation at the court, where officials are alleged to have been issuing fraudulent notices of motion to help foreigners avoid deportation. A notice of motion verifies that a party is going to court over a specific matter.

Read more: Justice Minister Kubayi finds major problems during inspection at Gauteng courts

The Hawks’ investigation had focused on one employee.

“It is alleged the employee has been issuing fraudulent notices to undocumented foreign nationals to prevent their deportation. This matter was formally reported to the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation in March,” the Hawks said. 

Speaking to Newzroom Afrika on Thursday, Hawks head Lieutenant General Godfrey Lebeya said the unit had received information about the scheme involving the deportations of illegal foreign nationals.

“Based on that, and with the affidavit that we had, we had to go and conduct a search so that we could gather evidence so that we can deal with this individual. He is a Level 5 individual in terms of ranking,” Lebeya said.

Lebeya said Level 5 referred to a junior rank. He said the Hawks believed that the individual was working alone at the court, but said they would cast their net wide.

“Because there were others who went to fetch some of these documents, some of whom work in certain [law] firms,” Lebeya said. 

“We believe that he is part of a syndicate; he can’t be operating alone. You cannot and go and serve them in some other environment where they need to be produced. There were others who were fetching these documents,” he said.

“We don’t know whether they are working with the firms […] or individuals associated with this specific person. But evidence will assist us in that regard,” he said

“We appreciate the information that came forward so that we can be able to stop this cancer,” Lebeya said.

Mthatha allegations

The suspension of the three Pretoria officials follows a number of recent allegations against court officials. 

Chief Justice Mandisa Maya visited the Mthatha High Court this week following claims of systemic corruption, with court officials allegedly soliciting bribes to do tasks that should be normal parts of their jobs. 

Read more: Chief Justice to visit Mthatha High Court over bribery allegations

Following her visit to the Mthatha court, Justice Maya said she “was assured a case had been opened with SAPS, and that the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation had launched an enquiry into the matter. This process is running concurrently with internal investigations by the department.”

Maya requested that the implementation of the court online system be expedited, which is aimed at “protecting the integrity of court operations, enhancing access to justice, minimising manual processes and curbing the allegations of improprieties”. DM