JOHANNESBURG - The Johannesburg Magistrates Court on Thursday granted the State a year-long postponement in the corruption case against former Gauteng Health MEC Brian Hlongwa.
Hlongwa, his wife Jolene, and five others appeared in the dock on fraud, money laundering, racketeering and corruption charges.
The former MEC is accused of receiving kickbacks in a multimillion-rand tender fraud case.
The investigation into the case has taken 10 years.
State advocate Raymond Mathenjwa told the court that he had two reasons to require a postponement on Thursday.
Firstly, one of the accused - a fugitive businessman - Richard Payne fled from Mauritius where he was meant to be extradited.
The State had to begin new extradition processes with the country Payne was believed to be in, but it refused to disclose the destination in an open court.
The second matter pertained to one of the accused appealing a racketeering certificate.
Mathenjwa said that the hearing would be completed in six months and Payne’s extradition would be finalised before September next year.
However, the defence was not convinced with Hlongwa’s lawyer, advocate Naomi Manaka, saying it had taken the State three years to successfully extradite an accused in a different matter from that country.
She also spoke of another case where a seven-year extradition process remained pending from the same country.
