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The National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) has obtained a forfeiture order to seize property worth R326m linked to Hangwani Morgan Maumela, whose companies were flagged by slain state official Babita Deokaran in suspected tender corruption. The high court in Joburg on Monday granted the order clearing the way for the NPA to take over Maumela’s family trust properties and luxury vehicles. The order follows a preservation order granted in August last year, when the NPA successfully froze assets linked to the trust after alleging they were the proceeds of unlawful activities. Monday’s ruling now clears the way for the assets to be permanently forfeited to the state.The effect of the order is that the Maumela trust will be stripped of the property. Any funds obtained through the state’s takeover of the assets will be deposited into the Criminal Assets Recovery Account. The state intends to hold the funds for the purpose and benefit of Tembisa Hospital or the Gauteng department of health. To get the order, NPA deputy director of public prosecutions Wendy da Silva argued the matter against the Maumela family trust involved “grand-scale fraud, corruption and money-laundering” at Tembisa Hospital. Da Silva’s arguments were pinned on the report of Morar Incorporated’s head of forensic accounting and investigations, Vinay Bositsumune, who investigated 14 entities linked to the Maumela family that received R410m from Tembisa Hospital from January 2019 to August 2022. The National Treasury’s specialised audit services unit appointed firms to investigate transactions that took place at Tembisa Hospital after Deokaran, then chief director of financial accounting at the Gauteng department of health, was shot and killed outside her home on August 23 2021. Read: Tembisa Hospital probe unmasks R2bn mafia-style looting“Hangwani Maumela and other members of the Maumela family are/were directors of the syndicate companies. There were instances in which crucial details of companies’ directorships were fraudulently misdeclared by the syndicate companies,” Da Silva’s affidavit reads.She said funds received from the tenders were mainly used for the purchase of immovable properties; luxury vehicles; payments to attorneys; transfers between the syndicate companies and other companies associated with the syndicate; payments to the Maumela Family Trust; and family members for their personal use to fund their extravagant lifestyle. “Though no direct transfer of monies from the entities to the officials was detected, analysis of their bank records indicates in excess of R10m received by them in addition to their salary receipts,” the affidavit reads. Property included in the court order included an R88m property in Bantry Bay, Cape Town; a R69m property in Sandhurst, Sandton; and another in the same upmarket suburb worth R71m. Vehicles include a Lamborghini Urus Aventador worth R17m, a R17m Lamborghini Aventador Ultimae Coupe, a Bentley Continental GT V8 worth R4m, and a Regency boat worth R1.9m. The overall property value is estimated at R326m. Business Day
