Bothma case stalled until September

The case against Dr Piet Bothma, former CE of the Transport Education and Training Authority (Teta), has stalled until at least September 1. Bothma has been charged with fraud after investing what was originally estimated to be R251.8-million of Teta’s funds in Fidentia – the finance group that collapsed in 2007 with huge amounts of its supposed investment monies missing. A key figure in the Fidentia scandal, Steve Goodwin, revealed in his plea agreement last week with the Cape High Court – that led to him being jailed for an effective 10 years – that he had played a key role in getting Teta to transfer investments to Fidentia's control. To do this, he said he paid Bothma bribes totalling R4.6-m, which were disguised first as commission payments, then as a sale of shares in a shell company that had no assets. Although the plea agreement does not mention the amount of the investments, it is reported that, according to other prosecution documents, it involved promissory notes worth just over R100-m. Another part of Goodwin’s deal is that he will testify in criminal proceedings against his former associate, ex-Fidentia boss J Arthur Brown. But a Cape High Court application is pending in which Brown is seeking an order to stop his prosecution on embezzlement charges, or to at least stop the investigation. And, according to a Cape Town journalist source, this will not be heard till September 1, and until then the other trials can go no further.