Newscenter Media News Former Denel board chair Daniel Mantsha and Zwelakhe Ntshepe, once acting and then briefly permanent Chief Executive of the State-owned defence and technology conglomerate, appeared in the Pretoria Specialised Commercial Crime Court last Friday (28 March) in connection with corruption charges related to the ill-fated Denel Asia joint venture.
They were each granted R30 000 bail following their arrest by the Investigating Directorate Against Corruption (IDAC) of the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) of South Africa. The pair face corruption charges brought in terms of three acts – Prevention and Combatting of Corrupt Activities Act, Public Finance Management Act (PFMA), Companies Act – as well as fraud charges.
They stand accused of alleged involvement in irregular approval and establishment of what was termed the Denel Asia joint venture in 2016. They allegedly signed the venture without following due process and further misrepresented facts to the ministers that the deal was not yet signed, while it was, according to an NPA statement.
“The alleged irregular joint venture is a formation between VR Laser South Africa (VRLSA) and Denel Asia which is a private company registered in Hong Kong. Denel is said to be a 51% shareholder in Denel Asia, while VRLSA holds 49%. They [Mantsha and Ntshepe] purported VRLSA to be the only suitable business entity that met all the legislative requirements to enter into a shareholders agreement with Denel, a South African government entity,” the NPA statement continues.
It reads further: “They allegedly disregarded a directive by the Minister of Finance stipulating that all transactions relating to Denel (SA) should be subjected to the minister’s approval as well as the approval from the Ministry of Public Enterprises. This was following the finance minister issuing a guarantee to Denel (SA) in the amount of R1.8 billion”.
“They further stand accused of receiving gratification for their alleged involvement in facilitating the deal. It was further discovered that confidential information relating to the affairs of the Board of Directors was disclosed between July 2014 and May 2016. There were also further discoveries of disregard to the PFMA stipulations by allegedly awarding bursaries without the required authority to do so.”
Bail of R30 000 each was granted by the specialist court with what NPA calls “their matter” was postponed to 16 May 2025 for disclosures. The court ordered them to surrender their passports and not apply for new ones. They were further ordered to make an application with the court to amend bail conditions should a need arise for them to travel outside South Africa.
No mention is made in the NPA statement of what prompted the IDAC investigation and arrest. In March 2018, Centurion headquartered trade union Solidarity laid charges of corruption, theft, fraud and mismanaging state funds against 21 alleged Denel state capturers, including Mantsha and Ntshepe. The Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (OUTA) also laid corruption charges against Mantsha, at one time a legal representative of Jacob Zuma, in the same year.
The Denel Asia joint venture was made public by Denel in a February 2016 statement which read, in part: “Denel Asia is a partnership between the South African defence and technology group, Denel and VR Laser, a company with 20 years’ extensive experience in defence and technology in SA”. The statement quoted Ntshepe as saying Asian countries were “vitally important” for Denel to expand its business and find new markets ending with him on record as saying Denel Asia was “a bold step into the future”.
Just over a year later in August 2017 another Denel statement made known a “resolution” to exit the Denel Asia joint venture due to, among others, “differences of opinion with National Treasury” noting in closing “we [Denel] have exited the joint venture”.
Mantsha was named chair of the Denel board in May 2015 by then public enterprises minister Lynne Brown with Ntshepe named Chief Executive in December 2017 after two years acting in the position.
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