VUYO MKIZE
ANOTHER prominent prosecutor has been added to the list of the accused in what has become known the “bread case”.
The latest addition, a senior prosecutor at the Protea Magistrate’s Court, Yusuf Baba, has brought the number of accused in the case to 15. It relates to several allegedly false cases opened against the business rivals of a man who ran a bakery.
On Friday, Baba appeared in the Protea Magistrate’s Court with Shaun Tuna, the owner of Nature’s Dream Bread; police officer Edward Cock and Johan Smit; Tuna’s employees Ashfaq Mashi, Naveet Mashi and Vusi Masina; former chief prosecutor Andre “Lampies” Lamprecht; attorneys Renier Spies and Fatima Kolia; court orderly Modise Mathibe; police officers Takalani Samson and Moses Matsau; and Tuna’s business associate Ayub Mohammed.
They face over 40 charges, including corruption, racketeering, extortion, defeating the ends of justice, and conspiracy to commit perjury between January 2009 and December 2010.
The accused stood shoulder to shoulder, filling the courtroom.
The State alleges that businessman Tuna had a fallout with some of his employees at Nature’s Dream Bread. The employees then decided to break away from the company and open their own bakery, Nature’s Harvest.
But Sergio Goncalves, a break-away employee, had signed a restraint clause with Tuna preventing him from operating the new business within an agreed radius of Tuna’s operation.
When Tuna failed to get the Johannesburg High Court to stop the business from operating, he allegedly used his connections in the criminal justice system to help him get rid of his competition.
False criminal cases were opened against Goncalves and his associates, evidence was fabricated, and innocent people were allegedly framed in court and denied bail even though there was no evidence against them.
National Prosecuting Authority spokesman Mthunzi Mhaga said some people were even jailed based on false charges.
Prosecutor Patrick Nkuna on Friday said “the allegations against Mr Baba are that he and the other suspects were instructed by accused prosecutor Lamprecht to persuade Pakistani nationals arrested in another case to make false statements against Sergio”.
Baba was granted R1 000 bail, Matsau’s bail application was postponed to Wednesday while the rest of the accused’s bail was extended. The case was postponed to March 30 for trial.