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UK citizen Richard Payne, wanted in R347m Gauteng fraud case, fends off extradition to SA

UK citizen Richard Payne, wanted in R347m Gauteng fraud case, fends off extradition to SA
Caryn Dolley
By Caryn Dolley
5 May 2025
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Richard Payne is wanted in South Africa in a multimillion-rand case rooted in 2006 involving alleged tender fraud and the Gauteng health department. His extradition is now looking less likely, or further off, though, because of a recent UK court ruling.

An extradition matter that ended up in South Africa’s Supreme Court of Appeal has had ripple effects in the United Kingdom (UK) — and this is set to affect a major criminal case rooted in Gauteng.

Richard Payne, a UK citizen in his mid-50s, has been embroiled in legal action there because South Africa wants him extradited.

This is because he is one of several accused in a Gauteng case that involves accusations of tender fraud connected to the health department there.

Among those also facing accusations in the case is former Gauteng health MEC and ANC Chief Whip Brian Hlongwa.

‘R347m irregular payments’


According to a February 2025 statement from the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) on that matter: “The accused face multiple charges stemming from alleged unlawful awarding of contracts to benefit themselves and their companies between 2006 and 2010…

“The alleged offences led to the Gauteng Department of Health misusing its budget, with over R347-million in irregular payments that include false claims for project management services and extra charges that were not part of the contracts.”



This Gauteng case was postponed to April 2026 so that outstanding issues, some relating to Payne’s potential extradition, could be dealt with.

Payne, meanwhile, has had a legal success in trying to distance himself from South Africa.

On 30 April 2025, a UK court ruled in his favour to appeal against a March 2024 court decision to send his case to the Secretary of State, who, in May last year, made an extradition order.

Two hundred and fifty-eight offences


The court judgment said Payne had previously lived and worked in South Africa where he is wanted “to stand trial alongside 15 other co-defendants for 258 offences including racketeering, fraud, corruption and money laundering between 2006 and 2010”.

An extradition request was initially issued and certified in November 2022, and Payne was arrested the following month.

He has been detained since then.

Read more: Former Gauteng health MEC Brian Hlongwa and co-accused granted bail in decade-old R221m tender graft case

“There is one ground of appeal for which permission to appeal has been granted, which is that Mr Payne’s extradition is an abuse of process,” the 30 April 2025 judgment said. 

“It might be noted that permission to appeal was granted only because of legal developments in South Africa.”

The “developments” related to a May 2024 Supreme Court of Appeal judgment.

Supreme Court and US case


According to that judgment, the appellant was Johnathan Schultz, a South African citizen who had been in the United States (US) since 2019.

In November that year police officers in South Africa arrested several people in relation to accusations of stealing and selling unwrought precious metals.

“The affidavit supporting the application for (search) warrants mentioned (Schultz) as an active member of one of the companies alleged to have been involved in the commission of the offences,” the Supreme Court of Appeal judgment said.

It added that when Schultz had appeared in a court March 2022, the prosecution had wanted a postponement for reasons including that “the NPA intended to request (his) extradition from the US”.

In that Schultz matter, he appealed against a high court finding that the NPA had the authority to make an extradition request, and not the minister of justice and correctional services.

The Supreme Court of Appeal judgment set aside the high court order and instead stated: “It is declared that only the first respondent (the minister of justice and correctional services) in his capacity as a member of the national executive of the Republic of South Africa, has the power to make an extradition request for the extradition of the applicant from the United States of America.”

‘No manipulation’


Back to the Payne case in the UK.

In trying to fend off extradition to South Africa, he used the Supreme Court judgment relating to Schultz.

According to the 30 April UK high court finding, Kessler Perumalsamy, a legal representative of Payne’s, had “stated that the decision in Schultz was not suspended and said that Mr Payne’s extradition request was to be treated as invalid”.



The finding said that there was certain abuse of processes relating to the extradition proceedings against Payne.

However, it stated: “There was no basis to show that the government of RSA, as prosecutor, had manipulated the court process. 

“I would therefore allow Mr Payne’s appeal against the order made by the judge.”

The UK finding also touched on broader extradition matters tied to this country.

“In cases in South Africa, including… Schultz, it had been contended on behalf of persons whose extradition had been sought to South Africa, that the power to seek extradition from a foreign state was vested in the minister of justice and not in the NPA. This had been disputed by the NPA,” it said.

“The evidence showed that the NPA had, since the commencement of the 1996 Constitution, made all of the extradition requests on behalf of the government of RSA and that other organs of the state had been a conduit only through which the requests were made.”

It added that there were more than 80 outstanding extradition requests around the world from the NPA. DM



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