The National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) says it has a strong case against former State Security Minister Bongani Bongo. Bongo has labelled the charges against him as a political witch hunt.

He appeared in the Cape Town Magistrate’s Court on Tuesday on charges of corruption and was released on R5 000 bail.

The NPA says charges against Bongo date back to between September and October 2017.

During a parliamentary inquiry into allegations of maladministration at Eskom, Bongo is alleged to have approached the former evidence leader of the inquiry, Advocate Ntuthuzelo Vanara, to collapse the inquiry.

“He wanted him to fake illness so that in the end, he would collapse the inquiry. Advocate Vanara refused to participate in that. He even went as far as telling him that he must name his price, even then Advocate Vanara refused and he reported the incident,” explains Western Cape NPA Spokesperson Eric Ntabazalila.

The matter was heard in the Cape Town High Court and Bongo was acquitted in 2021.

Ntabazalila, however, says the NPA successfully appealed the decision to the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA), which ordered that the matter be started afresh. Bongo, however, labels the allegations as a political witch-hunt.

“I went to court in Nelspruit and was acquitted there in terms of sec 174 of the Criminal Procedure Act. And to this end I have instructed my lawyers to institute a civil claim against the state of about R3.8 million. They have two weeks to respond while they must not pay such an amount for malicious prosecution and then we will follow the same.”

The case has been postponed to the 4th of March.