‘Go back to SA’ — UK and US tell Eskom and asbestos corruption accused they’re extraditable

17 Jun 2024

Michael Lomas is wanted in South Africa for a case involving R745-million Eskom fraud, while Moroadi Cholota is wanted for a R255-million Free State asbestos corruption matter. Different court rulings, in the UK and US, mean they are both now a step closer to extradition.

Michael Lomas has a degenerative spinal condition for which he recently had an operation in the UK.

Lomas, who is in his seventies, also has mobility issues.

At the same time, he is wanted in South Africa – and has told a doctor in the UK that if he is made to return to this country, he will “take his own life” and knows how to do it.

Last month, though, the England and Wales High Court denied Lomas’s application to appeal a previous order that he should be extradited to South Africa.

This means he is a step closer to being sent back here.

Multimillion rand corruption cases

Lomas is one of two accused in State Capture-style cases, who are in other countries, wanted in South Africa and whose extraditions have recently been greenlit.

Last week a US court found that ousted ANC secretary-general Ace Magashule’s former personal assistant, Moroadi Cholota, can be extradited from there.

She is wanted in a R255-million Free State asbestos corruption case in which Magashule is an accused.

South Africa requested her extradition from the US in 2022 and last week a court in Maryland found in favour of that, with a judgment saying this country had “indictments, sworn statements and affidavits, a forensic audit, emails” and other documents to support its case.

As for Lomas, his matter has been playing out in the UK.

R1.4bn costs and ‘illegal gratuities’

Lomas was arrested there in April 2021.

At the time South Africa’s Special Investigating Unit welcomed the development, saying: “Lomas is expected to join his co-accused former Eskom executives Abram Masango and France Hlakudi, businessman Maphoko Kgomoeswana and Tubular Construction Chief Executive Officer Antonio Trindade in court”.

Read more in Daily Maverick: Ex-Eskom bosses, Tubular Construction executives charged over R30m Kusile kickbacks saga

Later that year, in December 2021, the National Prosecuting Authority’s Investigative Directorate explained that Lomas was wanted in South Africa “to stand trial for alleged fraud and corruption for a R745-million payment made by the power utility to Tubular Construction Project”.

That statement also said: “The company was involved in the construction of Kusile Power Station, in which millions of rands were allegedly paid to Eskom officials in illegal gratuities for the awarding of lucrative contracts… This exposed Eskom to at least R1.4-billion in costs.”

In December 2022, the UK granted South Africa the right to extradite Lomas.

Degenerative disease

According to last month’s England and Wales High Court judgment, Lomas failed to have his extradition scrapped earlier this year over health issues and the way he may be treated if sent to South Africa.

After that an appeal was reopened and hinged on Lomas’s fitness to travel, but it was found that this was not an “arguable ground”.

Last month’s judgment relates to his third attempt to try to appeal his extradition.

It was based on issues including his human rights.

The judgment said Lomas had an operation in April 2024 “to take the pressure off his spinal cord and his C7 nerve root, in the context of his multi-level degenerative disc disease”.

After the operation he was sent to a care home and heard his extradition would proceed that same month, April 2024, “by means of a seven-hour flight to Doha” and “a nine-hour flight to Johannesburg”.

Read more in Daily Maverick: Six months after extradition ruling, Eskom fraud accused still in the UK, pending a final decision

Lomas launched an appeal process that resulted in the extradition being halted.

A doctor, Alan Mitchell, visited him twice and wrote reports on that.

Mobility issues

Mitchell found that Lomas was not fit to fly.

His first report said: “Currently Mr Lomas requires residential care in order to assist with his activities of daily living such as dressing and washing.

“He is seen on a weekly basis by a physiotherapist who has recommended that he does not maintain the same position for longer than 45 minutes, except when lying in bed.”

Read more in Daily Maverick: Former Eskom bosses in the dock for Kusile R30m kickback deal

Mitchell said that on a commercial flight, Lomas would not be able to move every 45 minutes and if there was an emergency, he would not be able to assume the brace position.

“Mr Lomas requires the use of a Zimmer to mobilise,” Mitchell found. “He would be unable to use such on an aeroplane including being able to get to the toilet.”

In the second report, Mitchell said it was established that a medical doctor would accompany Lomas on a direct flight to Johannesburg and he would have access to “an onboard wheelchair” to enable him to move position as needed.

Psychiatric red flag

That report also said Lomas recently experienced a loss of appetite, had lost 4.2kg and “developed bloody diarrhoea”.

Mitchell added: “In respect of his mental health Mr Lomas told me that if extradited he would take his own life and knew how he would do so.

“Given this, I would recommend that an urgent psychiatric review be appropriate.”

The judgment pointed out that a clinician, as discussed with the South African Police Service, would accompany Lomas on the flight to this country.

“The escorting clinician will be on hand on the flight, to assist with getting [him] into and out of the narrow wheelchair, to assist with getting onto and off the toilet, and to assist with washing,” the judgment said.

Extradition won’t oppress him

It found that in terms of Lomas not being able to assume the brace position given his mobility issues, this was not a pressing problem.

“There is no evidence that a brace position is a prerequisite for all who fly,” the judgment said.

“The premise of an emergency landing is not on substantial grounds a real risk.”

Another argument was that, if extradited, Lomas would not be able to recover properly after a serious operation and that “once imprisoned in [South Africa] this would amount to degrading treatment”.

But the judgment found otherwise.

“The transfer, beyond argument, cannot be characterised as oppressive or resulting in a real risk of a significant and permanent worsening of the [Lomas’s] state of health,” it said.

“Nor does a more immediate focus on the experience of flying, even arguably, give rise to oppression or a real risk of treatment which is inhuman or degrading.

“In these circumstances, I will dismiss the application for permission to appeal.”

Lomas’s health has previously affected processes to try to get him back to South Africa.

At the end of 2021 his extradition trial was postponed on medical grounds.

Last month it was also reported that the South African leg of the case, playing out in the Johannesburg High Court, was postponed because of the medical condition of one of Lomas’s local accused. DM

This story first appeared in our weekly Daily Maverick 168 newspaper, which is available countrywide for R35.

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