The prosecution will determine the fate of the remaining accused who were implicated in the so-called ‘Amigos case’.
THE PROSECUTION will determine the fate of the remaining accused who were implicated in the Northern Cape for the multimillion-rand tenders that were awarded for water purification plants, self-generating oxygen tanks and dialysis machines in the so-called “Amigos case”, after Uruguayan businessman and director of Intaka Holdings, Dr Gaston Savoi, entered into a plea agreement to “co-operate with the State”.
The matter has been taken over by the Specialised Commercial Crimes unit of the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) in the Northern Cape.
The closely guarded plea agreement is believed to blow the lid on high-ranking politicians.
Savoi pleaded guilty to four counts of fraud and six counts of corruption committed in KwaZulu-Natal and the Northern Cape between 2004 and 20007.
His cases have been transferred to the KwaZulu-Natal High Court in Durban.
Savoi was sentenced to a fine of R5 million or 10 years imprisonment and another 10 years imprisonment suspended for five years.
The court also issued a confiscation order of R60 million in favour of the State and ordered Savoi to pay R15 million towards the curatorship costs in the asset forfeiture restraint application proceedings.
The regional spokesperson for the NPA, Mojalefa Senokoatsane, indicated that the trials in the Northern Cape would continue separately from those in KwaZulu-Natal.
“The NPA is going ahead with the prosecution of the rest of the co-accused in due course. Only Savoi entered into the plea and sentence agreement – the other accused are not involved in the deal. It was an important strategy to pave the way for the prosecution of the rest of the accused,” said Senokoatsane.
Dr Savoi, the director of Skyros Health; his son and CEO, Rodrigo Savoi; business partner, Fernando Praderi; personal assistant and co-director, Alicia Marcos; an employee, Tracy Lee Dutton; and the former director of supply chain management at the Department of Health, Sanjay Mittah, were charged in connection with the procurement of 16 dialysis machines by the provincial Department of Health in 2006. These machines, worth R4 million, were for hospitals in Gordonia, Kuruman, De Aar, Springbok, Postmasburg, Barkly West, Calvinia, and Hartswater.
The charges against Marcos and Dutton were withdrawn by the state in 2016 without explanation, while the charges against Mittah were provisionally withdrawn.
The Intaka Holdings matter, relating to water purifiers and oxygen machines that were purchased for health facilities in the Northern Cape from Intaka Holdings and which involved former ANC provincial chairperson John Block, former Department of Health CFO Daniel Gaborone and former director of supply chain management at the department Sanjay Mittah, was struck off the roll in 2018.
The charges against Block, Savoi and Praderi from Intaka Holdings, former Sol Plaatje mayor Patrick Lenyibi, former municipal manager Frank Mashilo and former financial officer Nandi Madiba were provisionally struck off the roll in 2011.
The charges relate to six water purifiers that were purchased for R2.7 million that were never installed as intended in Ritchie.
Block was released on parole in 2023 after serving six years of a 15-year sentence imposed in connection with facilitating government leases with the Trifecta group of companies.
PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) forensic auditor Trevor White, who gave evidence before the Zondo commission, indicated that the majority of dialysis machines that were purchased for the Northern Cape Department of Health were unused and that hospitals did not have the funds to purchase the chemicals to operate the water purification plants.
