Pretoria – Matthew Pillay, his mother Devi Sigamoney, and his wife Lisa Pillay who are accused of tender fraud involving 88 million allegedly siphoned from police coffers will be back in the Pretoria Magistrate’s Court today.
The family, their employees, and three companies face 330 charges related to the Contravention of the Prevention of Organised Crime Act including fraud and money laundering.
On Thursday, (27 March 2025), Matthew Pillay, his mother Devi Sigamoney, and his wife Lisa Pillay appeared in the Pretoria Magistrate’s Court alongside their employees Bernard Mutimotema, Nithianathan Govender, Tinashe Moyo, and Betty Makinta.
They are charged along with three companies, KJP Trades, Bohlale Traders, and Swift Warehousing.
All the accused face fraud and money laundering charges related to a tender fraud valued at about R88 million to supply furniture to the South African Police Service (SAPS).
The Pretoria Magistrate’s Court postponed the case against the seven accused and three of their companies to today, Friday 28 March 2025.
Those accused remanded in custody were expected to request bail, which the state said it was not opposing.
It is alleged that in March 2012, Pillay registered KJP Traders under his mother’s directorship in her knowledge, when he was the actual owner of the company.
The purpose of such action was for them to comply with the prescripts of the Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment Act, and the Preferential Procurement Policy Framework Act, which promotes meaningful participation of black people, particularly women, people with disabilities, small enterprises, and black designated groups.
In 2019, KJP Traders bid for a tender in the SAPS to provide office furniture in KwaZulu-Natal, Easten Cape, Western Cape and Gauteng, with Sigamoney meeting all the requirements as per the false registration of the company.
The legal requirement for this tender was for the main contractor to subcontract 30% to local companies.
To this effect, Pillay and his wife allegedly colluded with employees of KJP to register companies, which in turn would be reflected as local beneficiaries from the main contract.
“These companies which had no assets were registered under false addresses in all four provinces,” explained Investigating Directorate Against Corruption (IDAC) spokesperson Henry Mamothame.
“A further collusion ensued when one of the companies which was registered under Makinta also bid for the main contract to disadvantage other bidders. “
Further allegations are that in their bid, KJP Traders misrepresented their VAT status in their documents, misrepresented ownership of the company to gain advantage over other bidders by having an elderly woman as the sole director and also misrepresented information of the sub-contractors including their addresses.
Through this collusion, the company was awarded a three-year contract valued at approximately R88 million by the SAPS.
The matter continues today.
