A “court order” allegedly submitted in attempts to clear Petroleum Oil and Gas Corporation of South Africa (PetroSA) acting board chairperson and Central Energy Fund (CEF) director, Nkululeko Poya’s name, is fraudulent, the Office of the Chief Justice (OCJ) has confirmed.
This comes after UDM leader Bantu Holomisa wrote to Police Minister Bheki Cele and Mineral Resources Minister Gwede Mantashe, asking them to investigate allegations that Poya submitted a fraudulent court order.
Mantashe had in 2019 appointed Poya, the former Railway Safety Regulator (RSR) chief executive officer to the CEF board, which had raised concerns following allegations of maladministration and corruption. PetroSA is a subsidiary of the CEF, which is wholly owned by the state and reports to the Department of Energy.
In the letter, Holomisa said: “You are called upon to verify the accuracy and veracity of the attached two documents aimed at clearing the name of Mr Nkululeko Andrew Stephen Poya, the acting board chairperson of PetroSA and director of the Central Energy Fund.
“Poya seems to have created a fraudulent court order where he has made Josette Sheria the first respondent and PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) the second. With High Court judge Honourable Justice Dosio as having presided over the case.”
According to Holomisa’s letter, the court order downplays a PwC forensic report done in 2018, after it had been appointed by the RSR.
The report reportedly resulted in charges of misconduct against Poya.
The fraudulent court order purports to show that the forensic report by PwC is reviewed with no costs order.
PwC said they were not aware of any such court order.
“PwC was made aware of the existence of an apparent court order in which PwC and a former partner are cited as respondents. We have not seen a copy of the court order, and are investigating as we have no knowledge of the alleged court proceedings.
We are thus unable to provide any comment.”
The OCJ said that upon inspection of the alleged court order, the Chief Registrar of the Gauteng Division of the High Court found that it was indeed fraudulent as “various characteristics were not in line with the standardised security features employed by the Superior Courts”.
These include the fact that the Registrar’s signature is unknown to the court, and the case number does not correspond with any existing cases registered in the Johannesburg High Court.
“The OCJ has procedures in place that make provision for the reporting of any alleged incidents of fraudulent Court Orders in the Superior Courts.
The OCJ’s Forensic Unit is responsible for the monitoring and investigation, in respect of all alleged incidents of fraud and corruption, including fraudulent court orders. As such, this incident has, as internal processes dictate, been escalated to the OCJ Forensic Unit for further investigation. Furthermore, the matter will be reported to the police as per procedure,” the OCJ said.
Cele’s office confirmed receipt of Holomisa’s letter and said it was still under consideration.
Poya's lawyer, Rudolph Baloyi said: "Mr Poya will not at this stage be speculating or commenting on the issue, however he maintains his innocence and has assembled a legal team to deal with the malicious matter expeditiously. Mr Poya is looking forward to clearing his name in due course."
Cape Times