Winnie co-accused testifies

2003-03-04 12:18

Pretoria - A broker, accused with African National Congress Women's League president Winnie Madikizela-Mandela of fraudulently getting loans in the name of bogus league employees, testified on Tuesday.

Addy Moolman and Madikizela-Mandela have pleaded not guilty to 60 charges of fraud and 25 of theft involving R942 360.

Moolman said a senior bank official had authorised such loans to people not employed by the ANCWL.

He told Pretoria regional court there was an agreement that Saambou would grant loans to ANC Women's League employees.

However, when friends and relatives of these employees and other people in the ANC building heard of the loans, they expressed interest, too.

Moolman testified that he had asked Willie Meuter, then national director of Saambou's loan's department, whether these people would also qualify for the loans.

Meuter gave the green light as long as the applicants were recommended by Madikizela-Mandela.

Funeral-policy money deducted

The State alleges that letters on the ANCWL letterhead, bearing Madikizela-Mandela's signature, were used to fraudulently obtain loans from Saambou Bank in the name of bogus league employees and her daughter, Zinzi.

The theft charges relate to amounts of R360 deducted from loan applicants' bank accounts for a funeral policy that allegedly did not exist.

The trial, which started in July last year, resumed on Monday after several delays. It was postponed last October because Madikizela-Mandela broke her foot, and again last week when Moolman was injured in a car accident.

Moolman was back in court wearing a neck brace on Monday. However, he asked shortly before the lunch break for the matter to stand down until Tuesday morning because he was in pain.

Signed because she was 'stranded'

On Monday, a witness testified how she was made to sign a blank loan application form which was fraudulently completed later.

Nurse Maditaba Adelinah Raphahla said she signed the document under Moolman's guidance.

"I asked him: 'How can I sign this document when it is blank? And he said 'Because you need the money'," she testified through an interpreter.

Asked if she was satisfied with his answer Raphahla replied: "Yes, because I was stranded and needed the money."

The form was later completed to falsely reflect that Raphahla earned a salary of R4 200 as a clerk for the ANCWL. In fact, she had been a nurse at Chris Hani-Baragwanath Hospital in Soweto for 20 years.

She also testified she was not told about a R360 fee deducted from her account for a funeral policy.

- SAPA