News24 | ‘64GB worth of emails’: Fraud charges against SAFA’s Jordaan stand as new evidence emerges

SAFA president Danny Jordaan at a previous court appearance.

• The acting DPP, advocate Livingston Mzukisi Sakata, dismissed applications by Jordaan, SAFA CFO Gronie Hluyo and businessman Trevor Neethling to have R1.1m fraud charges withdrawn, after prosecutors unearthed 64GB of new email evidence from Afrihost.
• Jordaan’s lawyer accused the State of delaying the trial, arguing that ongoing investigations and an amended charge sheet show prosecutors are not ready to proceed.
• The trio have approached the Gauteng High Court to challenge the legality of their March 2024 search-and-seizure and arrests, with the application set for 8 October; the Palm Ridge matter was postponed to 21 November.

Representations made to the acting South Gauteng Director of Public Prosecutions, Livingston Sakata to drop fraud charges against SA Football Association (SAFA) president Danny Jordaan, have failed.

State prosecutor Moagi Malebati on Friday told the Specialised Commercial Crime Court in Palm Ridge that representations Jordaan, SAFA CFO Gronie Hluyo and businessman Trevor Neethling made to have charges of fraud - relating to the alleged misappropriation of R1.1 million from SAFA - withdrawn were dismissed, and that the representations they submitted had instead led to the discovery of new evidence.

“After we received the accused’s representation, we realised that the emails attached in support of their application were selective. They did not paint the full picture. We then took the decision to approach the host website of the email addresses, which is Afrihost.

“A section 205 was submitted and they adhered to it, and in response to our request they provided us with 64GB worth of emails which gave us more evidence for this matter,” said Malebati.

READ | Danny Jordaan sues JJ Tabane for R3.5 million over ‘bloody crook’ comment on eNCA

Section 205 of South Africa’s Criminal Procedure Act allows a prosecutor to ask a magistrate to subpoena someone to give material or important information relating to a crime.

He said this new evidence informed Sakata’s decision to dismiss Jordaan’s application, adding that further investigations would now be conducted. He added that this has also compelled the State to draw up a new charge sheet based on the new evidence.

Malebati further told the court that Jordaan and his co-accused have approached the Gauteng High Court in Johannesburg with interlocutory applications seeking to declare a search-and-seizure warrant executed on 8 March 2024 unlawful, to have their arrests declared unlawful, and to further have the charges against them dismissed. The application is set to be heard on 8 October.

Jordaan’s lawyer, Victor Mkwashu, accused the State of delaying the commencement of the trial, adding that this was exacerbated by the decision to amend the charge sheet based on the new evidence discovered by the NPA.

“The Acting DPP says the investigations are ongoing, which means they are not complete. So the State can’t say they are ready to go to trial when the person who is in charge of the matter says, ‘I am still investigating and I am going to give you new disclosures.’ One hand has to know what the other is doing. That is why they are the State,” he said.

He further argued that Jordaan has always complied with the investigation team and had been forthcoming, providing it with a statement in December 2022 - only for the State to obtain a search-and-seizure warrant in March 2024.

Mkwashu added:

“The accused took a strategic move and approached the High Court to bring a review application, and the State now knows about it. Months later, they issued warrants and had the accused arrested,” he said.

He said the State knew there was a review application pending before the High Court, which was not intended to block their arrests, but to exercise their rights.

“The State knew the application was there and they still went ahead and arrested the accused, and they did this to subvert the arrest - the accused cooperated,” he said.

The matter was postponed to 21 November for further investigations while allowing the High Court application to be concluded.