Durban - Solomon Lazarus, the former chief financial officer of Crime Intelligence, has been granted leave to appeal against his 10-year sentence for using state funds to buy vehicles for himself and his children.
Four vehicles, amounting to almost R238 000, were purchased. These include a R55 000 Kia Picanto for his daughter, a R27 432 Honda CBR motorbike for his son, a Nissan Murano 3.5I v6 4X4 CVT as well as a Honda ATV for himself.
Magistrate Adrian Bekker, sitting in the Pretoria Regional Court, found Lazarus, formerly of Durban, guilty of corruption and sentenced him to 10 years’ imprisonment. Lazarus, 57, has however chosen to appeal against his conviction and sentence.
He was subsequently granted leave to appeal and is out on R10 000 bail. Judgment was heard in November last year followed by sentencing last week.
Lazarus’s co-accused, Colonel Heine Johannes Barnard, was acquitted on all charges, while Lazarus was acquitted on theft and fraud charges.
According to Sindisiwe Twala, the investigating directorate spokesperson, Lazarus was responsible for a secret service account for more than 20 years. Twala said Lazarus was involved in acquiring motor vehicles for crime intelligence from Atlantis Motors Pty Ltd, a service provider for SAPS. Atlantis Motors is owned by Jan Venter.
Lazarus would buy the vehicles through Universal Technical Enterprises CC, a front company created by SAPS for covert vehicles to be used in undercover projects for crime intelligence. The enterprise company bought several new and used vehicles from Atlantis Motors. The front company created a special account called Barut for Venter to deposit money made from selective sales of used vehicles. This money was intended for Lazarus's use.
"Lazarus then derived benefit from 2006 to 2011 December, money which belonged to the State for the purchase of the four vehicles," said Twala.
It was found that the Honda CBR motorbike was bought for his son's birthday in March 2011.
Magistrate Bekker said that the corruption of members of the police would not be tolerated. She found that the evidence presented proved beyond a reasonable doubt that Lazarus was guilty of corruption. He rejected the accused's version of a credit card transaction and in-house financing to be false and unconvincing.
"The court rejects the accused's version, taking into account the totality of the evidence, that there was a so-called credit transaction or in-house financing as false, unconvincing and not reasonably, possibly true."
He thanked the State and defence for the work put into proving their case.
Advocate Hermione Cronje, the head of the Investigating Directorate (ID), said: "Today, on International Anti-Corruption Day, we are pleased to have our very first conviction and sentencing since the inception of the ID."
Lazarus is also allegedly linked to controversial KZN businessman Panganathan "Timmy" Marimuthu, who was sentenced to an effective three years’ imprisonment for dealing in mandrax. He, however, never spent a day in prison and evidence during the Jali Commission in 2002 found that Marimuthu had bribed officials to avoid doing jail time.
Marimuthu, according to an investigation by the Hawks, was soon appointed by Lazarus as a crime intelligence agent. Lazarus was also found to have appointed five of Marimuthu's family members as police officers. They comprised his wife (a colonel), his son-in-law (a lieutenant), his daughter (a captain), his brother (a colonel) and his niece (a captain). Two of Marimuthu's girlfriends were appointed clerks.
Lazarus, in turn, allegedly received expensive gifts from Marimuthu, such as overseas trips and jewellery. Atlantis Motors, according to testimony by Kobus Roelofse, a senior Hawks officer who testified at the Zondo Commission last year, was also the company that had settled the balance owed on Ranjeni Munusamy's car.
Munusamy is a former political journalist for the Sunday Times and former employee of the Friends of Jacob Zuma. In October, she was appointed in the Ministry of Finance as a community outreach officer.
Lazarus is also implicated in another case expected to be heard in the Pretoria High Court in February. He is the co-accused in the case involving former Richard Mdluli, the former Crime Intelligence boss, who is currently serving five years imprisonment for a kidnapping and assault case.
In November, Mdluli failed to appear before the Pretoria Specialised Crimes Court, citing ill health. According to Twala, Mdluli's co-accused, Lazarus and Heine Barnard, appeared briefly in court before it was adjourned and referred to the Pretoria High Court for a provisional date of February 8, 2021.
They are accused of corruption, fraud and theft. Heine faces an additional charge of defeating the ends of justice.
"This is in connection with the allegation of abusing the secret services’ slush fund. This includes allegations of payment from the fund for private trips to China and Singapore, private use of witness protection houses, conversion of this property for personal use and the leasing out of his private residence to the state in order to pay Mdluli’s bond, amongst others."
Twala said that Barnard and Lazarus intended on applying to the state attorney’s office for it to pay for their legal costs as they could not afford the legal representatives for the full duration of the trial.
"The ID is ready to go on trial and finally settle the nine-year protracted court case which the ID inherited last year."
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