Bentley missing as SIU swoops on dealership in Tembisa Hospital probe

When Special Investigating Unit (SIU) officials and police swooped on an eMalahleni car dealership to retrieve a Bentley linked to alleged Tembisa Hospital fraud kingpin Hangwani Maumela on Friday afternoon, the vehicle was nowhere to be found.

The SIU officials had obtained an order from the Special Tribunal on Friday to preserve the vehicle, worth about R3m. This was part of the ongoing investigation into the R2bn looting of the Tembisa Hospital.

Eleven luxury vehicles, including numerous Lamborghinis and Aston Martins worth more than R75m, had already been attached as part of the SIU probe. It is believed the Bentley was allegedly hidden by the dealership as it was procured with proceeds from the looting of Tembisa Hospital.

When SIU officials, police officials and the curator arrived and served Omar’s Motor Den and its owner Yusuf Omar with the tribunal’s order on Friday afternoon, Omar initially refused to co-operate.

However, after threats of arrest, Omar later co-operated. It was then that it emerged that the Bentley in question had been sold, with the dealership admitting it sold the vehicle.

The Bentley on the dealership floor was not the vehicle under investigation and which the tribunal order had instructed must be retrieved.

However, Omar complied with another order of the tribunal that the SIU and the curator seize CCTV footage and any other electronic records from all cameras located at the premises of Omar’s Motor Den from May 22 to June 5.

Omar and the dealership have until next Tuesday to supply the SIU’s curator with documents of the sale, ownership of the Bentley and its whereabouts.

In terms of the tribunal’s order made on Friday, by tribunal president Judge Bernard Ngoepe, the dealership and Omar must show cause before the tribunal on July 3 why they should not be held in contempt of Friday’s tribunal order and why Omar should not be imprisoned for a period to be determined by the tribunal.

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