The of Good Hope Plasterers (GHP) director, Ridwaan Rajah, who maintains his innocence, said the suspended imprisonment sentence he received this week was a “travesty of justice”.
They also alleged a “poor investigation” led to Rajah’s 25-day incarceration.
Rajah, 47, was sentenced at the Bellville Specialised Commercial Crimes Court following his conviction on theft and perjury charges in April.
Rajah and his company Good Hope Plasterers, trading as Good Hope Construction, were contracted by the Department of Public Works (DPW) for internal and external renovations to the parliamentary precinct in 2010.
Hawks spokesperson, Siyabulela Vukubi, said: “After (GHP’s) work was certified to be finally completed, the DPW submitted a proposed final account to (Rajah) in the amount of R10.8 million which was not accepted.
The accused instituted a notice of motion application in the Western Cape High Court against the department seeking an order to include the amount of over R500 000 in the final account.
“In his founding affidavit in support of the aforesaid application, Rajah misrepresented and stated that the full amount of R500 000 was in respect of an advance payment made to the sub-contractor, namely Winlite Aluminum and Doors (Pty) Ltd.
He deliberately put incorrect figures pertaining the contract value of his sub-contractor in his founding affidavit. The order was granted and the DPW paid the said amount into the account of GHP which belongs to (Rajah), in order to adhere to the court order. It was later discovered that the accused did not pay the full amount over to the sub-contractor, which he never disclosed in the notice of motion proceedings, but withheld an amount of R51 903,” said Vukubi.
Vukubi said the case dated back to 2019 and was investigated by the Hawks’ Serious Commercial Crime Investigation team.
For the theft charge, Rajah was this week sentenced to six years imprisonment which was wholly suspended for five years. On the charge of perjury, he was sentenced to 12 months imprisonment, wholly suspended for five years.
Good Hope Plasterers CC was fined R200 000 wholly suspended for five years in respect of theft.
Family spokesperson, Raziek Rajah, said there were a number of discrepancies which occurred during the time between conviction and sentencing, including that “the conviction by the Hawks and the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) reflected R519 037.90, but no evidence was ever led that GHP committed VAT fraud and more so the company was in good standing the entire period up until it went in to business rescue”.
“During court proceedings, professional persons who dealt with the project finances from DPW were not called. That uniformed and in our opinion, deliberate poor investigation resulted in an innocent man being incarcerated for 25 days under inhumane conditions. This case is a targeted attack on the Rajah family as a whole.
“We will be appealing the sentence and approaching various departments to account for this travesty of justice,” said Raziek.
Cape Times