Former Office of the Chief Justice officials accused of benefiting from R225m IT tender

THE Office of the Chief Justice (OCJ) says it is investigating a R225 million tender awarded to multinational media and technology company Thomson Reuters.

This after weekend media reports revealed that three former employees of the OCJ, who were privy to the set-up of the tender, recently resigned from the OCJ in order to allegedly illegally benefit from the tender.

The Sunday Times reported that former CFO Casper Coetzer, former spokesperson and chief director of court administration Nathi Mncube, and former case management director Yvonne van Niekerk, helped to set up the six-year contract before they resigned and worked their last day on 31 May.

On 1 June, they started in their new positions as directors of ZA Square Consulting, acting as local partners to Thomson Reuters.

It was later discovered that they own 30% of shares in ZA Square, a firm that was set to gain around R67.5 million