Court rulings impact frozen bank accounts of corruption accused Gillingham and Panday

An ex-government department chief financial officer (CFO) and a controversial businessman linked to State Capture received mixed outcomes when they attempted to access their bank accounts frozen by the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA).

Patrick Gillingham, the retired Department of Correctional Services CFO, and KwaZulu-Natal businessman Thoshan Panday had approached the high courts in Pretoria and Pietermaritzburg, respectively, in bids to gain access to their bank accounts. These accounts are currently managed by a curator bonis, a court-appointed professional responsible for overseeing the financial interests and assets of individuals deemed unable to manage them themselves.

In Gillingham’s case, he hauled outgoing National Director of Public Prosecutions (NDPP) Shamila Batohi to the Gauteng High Court, Pretoria, where he claimed he is in dire straits as a result of the restraint order granted in terms of the Prevention of Organised Crime Act (Poca) in July 2024.

Gillingham, who is currently out on R20,000 bail, is expected to face charges relating to the awarding of R1.8 billion in lucrative tenders to Bosasa, later known as African Global Operations.

He is charged alongside former Correctional Services national commissioner Linda Mti and former ANC MP and chairperson of the National Assembly’s portfolio committee on Correctional Services Vincent Smith.

Their former co-accused, ex-Bosasa chief operations officer Angelo Agrizzi, entered into a plea and sentence agreement with the NPA’s Investigating Directorate Against Corruption (Idac) and was sentenced to 10 years direct imprisonment on each one of the four counts of corruption and money laundering, which was wholly suspended for five years on a number of conditions.

The conditions include that Agrizzi co-operates with Idac and provides investigators and the police with affidavits detailing the full extent of his knowledge of all matters the directorate investigated regarding the corruption by both public and/or private officials at Bosasa.

The criminal case is pending in the high court in Pretoria and set to proceed for a full court term later this year.

Although Patrick Gillingham is presumed innocent until proven guilty, he has been stripped of control over and access to his bank accounts pending the resolution of his criminal case and a potential forfeiture order. As a result, he is unable to utilise these funds to cover his living expenses and legal costs.

He disclosed two immovable properties – the first being the residence of his and his life partner and the second a unit in a retirement village where his stepmother has been living on her own since the passing of his father.

Gillingham also disclosed an amount of about R91,000 previously held by his attorney in trust as cover for legal expenses in the criminal matter and which has since been paid over to the curator bonis.

In March last year, the current correctional services national commissioner Makgothi Thobakgale, in compliance with the Solicitor-General’s 2021 policy on state legal representation, declined to approve the provisions of legal representation for Gillingham through the Office of the State Attorney.

Gillingham indicated that his attorney’s and counsel’s fees have been quoted at R25,000 per day each and when provision is made for five days’ preparation in addition to the trial itself, he claimed the release of funds to him by the curator bonis of R2.25 million.

Batohi objected to the fact that no confirmation of the legal fees have been provided by Gillingham and the quotation relied on, fee agreement and mandate were not annexed to his papers nor was there any confirmation from the attorney or the counsel of the claims he made.

“These procedural deficits also impact on the assessment of the veracity and reasonableness of the claims. I am of the view that these objections are valid and that, on the papers as they stand,” ruled Judge Norman Davis last month.

Gillingham had told the court that his only sources of income are interest earned on his fixed deposits – R24,150.45 and R2,752.10  – and which accumulate to the accounts and he has no access to them and he receives R477.55 per month from the annuity policy which have already been paid out.

He listed monthly living expenses as totaling about R25,400 ranging from domestic worker’s salary and transport, dog food, satellite television subscription, utility bills, retirement village rates and taxes, levies, chronic medication and medical aid, among others.

The NDPP most vigorously opposed Gillingham’s application, principally on the basis that it alleges that he failed to make sufficient disclosure of his financial position, did not fully explain how his expenses had been paid and that the disclosures of assets and liabilities to the curator bonis were legally irrelevant as Poca requires disclosures to be made to the court and not to any other person.

However, Judge Davis ordered the curator bonis to pay for Gillingham’s medical aid, levies, rates and taxes, utilities, cellphone contract and funds to his life partner.

On Friday, a full bench of the KwaZulu-Natal High Court, Pietermaritzburg overturned the June 2023 order authorising the payment of reasonable living and legal expenses to Panday, his wife Privisha and personal assistant Tasleem Rahiman following a restraining order on specified realisable property granted in March that year.

The judges upheld the NDPP’s appeal with costs and replaced the June 2023 order with one declaring: “The application for an expenses order in terms of s 26(6) of Poca is dismissed with costs”.

“Poca establishes an elaborate mechanism designed to preserve property pending criminal proceedings and, where appropriate, to facilitate confiscation. The restraint scheme is stringent. Relief permitting access to restrained property for expenses is exceptional and tightly controlled,” reads the judgment.

Panday is facing charges of allegedly defrauding the SA Revenue Service of R7.3m, a case for which he is was granted R100,000 bail by the Durban Magistrate’s Court in November 2024.

In a separate matter, he has been charged with corruption, fraud and money laundering relating to the 2010 FIFA World Cup, where he received a R47m tender for accommodation at inflated prices due to an allegedly corrupt relationship with officials in the police’s supply chain management division.

loyiso.sidimba@inl.co.za