NORTHERN CAPE – Two company directors, Gert Renier Van Rooyen (62) and Claudius Gerald Peterson (57) along with an entity made a brief appearance today at Kimberley Magistrate Court facing charges of fraud and contravention of the Private Security Industry Regulation Act 56 of 2001. They appeared along with Steven Jonkers (55) facing a charge of contravening the Public Finance Management Act 1 of 1999 (PFMA).

Jonkers was released on R50 000-00 bail, whilst Van Rooyen and Peterson were each released on R100 000-00 bail. The case against the trio has been postponed to Wednesday, 10 November 2021.

It is alleged that during 2017, Jonkers the former HOD of Health Department, who once was a police officer and is currently the Deputy Director General in the Premiers office, awarded a tender irregularly to Defensor Electronic Security Systems company for rendering of security services to the department.

It is further alleged that the directors of the company submitted fraudulent documents in order to gain an unfair advantage over others to be awarded the tender as the highest bidder. They were awarded the tender between August and October 2017, worth a total value surpassing R224 million, however it later escalated to an amount exceeding R384 million.

The case was reported to the Hawk’s Serious Corruption Investigation in December 2017, where an Inquiry was registered. The Enquiry was turned into a case docket in February 2020 culminating to the arrest and subsequent court appearance today.

Source: South African Police Service