IN PICS | Millions in perfume, bags, booze, cars seized from former top cop, Durban businessman

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Assets worth more than R165m — including designer handbags, perfume and liquor — have been seized from Durban businessman Thoshan Panday and former KwaZulu-Natal police commissioner Mmamonnye Ngobeni and others on trial on racketeering, fraud and corruption charges relating to alleged corruption in a SAPS accommodation 2010 Soccer World Cup tender.

The assets include money in their bank accounts which have been frozen.

Investigating Directorate (ID) spokesperson Sindisiwe Seboka said the Asset Forfeiture Unit and the ID were granted a provisional restraint order in the Durban high court against Panday, his ex-wife, Ngobeni and seven others on March 29 this year.

“Execution of the order by the curator appointed by the court took place this morning [Monday] in and around Durban.

“The NPA is working hard, attempting to take profits out of crime.”

She said the order was directly related to the criminal case in which the accused were first charged in October 2021. It is now before the high court.

Others affected by the order are Col Navin Madhoe, the former head of acquisitions in supply chain management, Capt Ashwin Narainpershad of the same unit, and relatives of Panday, including his mother, brother-in-law, sister and his professional assistant.

“The alleged criminal syndicate is accused of acting in common purpose to deprive SAPS of more than R47.3m The order of R165m is the total amount of the proceeds of unlawful activities received by the enterprise and individual parties.”

The indictment alleges the three police officials deliberately delayed applications for procurement authority from national office for the accommodation for the World Cup and deliberately did not follow up on invitations they sent to existing service providers who charged reasonable rates.

This resulted in tenders being issued on an “urgent basis” at inflated rates, deviating from normal procurement processes.

Panday’s Goldcoast Trading was awarded 80% of the contracts. It is alleged he misrepresented that Goldcoast had secured block bookings in 2008, which was false, and then placed police members in venues, paid them a low rate and claimed the inflated rates from SAPS.

In the application for the restraint order, the NPA alleged Panday was the mastermind of the enterprise. 

He and the others have until May 29 to file papers opposing the order being made final.

The accused will return to court for the criminal matter on August 25.

They have yet to plead to the 237 charges listed in the weighty indictment.

Instead, they have made several requests for “further information” from the state for them to prepare their defences  and have complained they have not received a satisfactory response.

In return for the contracts, it is alleged Panday gifted Madhoe accommodation at the Oyster Box Hotel and paid for him and his family to fly to Cape Town and for their accommodation at a total cost of R89,000.

It is alleged that Panday paid R43,000 for Narainpershad's son’s Varsity College fees, bought him a Trojan treadmill for R7,000, and paid for his accommodation at two hotels, totalling almost R60,000.

Panday is also alleged to have paid about R21,000 for  a “surprise birthday party” for Ngobeni’s husband Brig Lucas Ngobeni.

Ngobeni is also charged with obstructing or attempting to defeat the course of justice when she allegedly instructed Brig Laurence Kemp, the head of provincial expenditure, and then KwaZulu-Natal Hawks boss Johan Booysen to stop an investigation into the alleged procurement fraud.

Madhoe and Panday are also charged with corruption in relation to offering Booysen R2m to change a date on a document so it would appear information had been obtained before subpoenas were obtained.

They are also charged with attempting to extort Booysen to predate the report by showing him photographs which would  allegedly implicate him in the so-called “Cato Manor killings”, threatening they would be used against him unless he complied with their demands.