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Trifecta in court again

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Photo: File

The Hawks’ Serious Commercial Crime Investigation team served Trifecta Holdings (Pty) Ltd with a summons on Wednesday to appear in the Kimberley Regional Court for alleged fraud.

Trifecta Holdings, a company involved in the property business and its subsidiary companies, concluded lease agreements with the Department of Sports, Arts and Culture, Department of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development and South African Social Security Agency (SASSA).

Hawks spokesperson, Nomthandazo Mnisi, said that it was alleged that between 2009 and 2010, Trifecta Holdings allegedly paid a senior practitioner in Sassa’s Facility Management and Auxiliary Support Unit an amount of R60 000 in the form of a gratification.

“The Director of Trifecta Holdings, Werner Du Plessis who is representing the company, appeared in the Kimberley Regional Court on Wednesday,” Mnisi said.

The case has been postponed to October 15, 2020 for consultation.

Trifecta Holdings made headlines in 2016 when the former ANC provincial chairperson in the Province John Block and the company’s CEO, Christo Scholtz, were both sentenced to 15 years imprisonment for corruption and money laundering/

The court found that Block assisted the company to lease properties to the Northern Cape Provincial Government at inflated costs and to have received kickbacks in return.

In 2018 the Supreme Court of Appeal in Bloemfontein in the Free State dismissed both the appeal bid from Block and Scholtz after they were found guilty of corruption. 

The charges related to kickbacks that were made to unduly influence the awarding of leases to Trifecta for government offices. Block and his company Chisane Investments benefited from cash payments; renovations to his guest house in Upington and ordinary shares in Trifecta Resources and Exploration (Pty) Ltd.

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