CHARGES DROPPED? Sorry Bobby Motaung, you're not off the hook. The TRUTH about the Mbombela Stadium will be told.

Charge: Bobby and Mbombela Stadium

IT was a shocking phone-call. Thursday afternoon. All charges against Bobby Motaung have been dropped. Be careful what you write now.

What? After SIX attempts to get his corruption case dropped, the son of Kaizer and general manager of South Africa’s biggest football franchise, was going to get clean away with his part in the huge fraud surrounding the building of the Mbombela Stadium for the 2010 World Cup?

Remember this was a case which has cost lives. Former Mbombela speaker, Jimmy Mohlala, and Mpumalanga sport and culture spokesperson Sammy Mpatlanyane are both dead after questions were asked over the R1.2bn cost of the giraffe-strewn Mbombela World Cup venue.

Mohlala was shot dead in January 2009. Mpatlanyane was killed in January 2010. So far, Motaung and his co-accused, Herbert Theledi and Chris Gribb, have not been officially linked with those deaths. They were originally charged with a R143m fraud.

But I can reassure South Africans. The NPA is not done yet. And the Hawks still have their claws in to Bobby, the man who boasted that he needed no CV for his lucrative role in “the family business.”

Motaung was released on R15,000 bail, reduced from the original R200,000. When it was suggested Motaung should be suspended from his job as Kaizer Chiefs general manager – where he oversees transfers and, just this month, decided NOT to renew Jimmy Tau’s contract amid a storm of protest – Bobby insisted the case had nothing to do with the AmaKhosi.

Three months ago, I spoke to the investigating officer who arrested “Bobsteak” twice. There was a particular storm when he collared Motaung for a second time IN COURT on March 1.

My source assured me then: “We have a watertight case against Mr Motaung. I would not have arrested him in those circumstances unless I had all the evidence I need.”

And last night, I tracked down the same gentleman again, though his telephone number has been changed. After an initial hesitation, he recognised my voice and told me: “Yes, I stand by what I said then. I am confident in the case I have against Mr Motaung and his two co-accused.”

Tomorrow I will try to persuade my source to go public and talk on “Bollockz” my show on Thursday morning on www.ballz.co.uk. We go live on the internet between 10am and noon.

My source will speak to the NPA in the meantime. Incredibly he was not consulted last week. Those charges of fraud, corruption and forgery may have been dropped by Magistrate Roelf Smith, but no certificate of “Nolle prosequi” (indicating, finally, the case will not be pursued) has been issued.

Motaung was first arrested in August 2012 and then again earlier this year in a case described as “high-profile” by the Neslpruit Regional Court. Much like the Oscar Pistorius case, delays and prevarication from Motaung’s lawyer Zola Majavu and confusion in the NPA have seen the case drag on. And on.

Magistrate Smith used two letters from the NPA, showing a conflict over where the case would be heard, to justify the dropping of charges. Majavu claimed: “The NPA is at war with itself,” and the case was duly removed from the roll.

But that does not mean an end to the matter. And remember, there is a second, bigger charge pending after that second arrest – a R920m case involving Motaung, Gribb, his former lawyer Michael Romanos, Mbombela’s former municipal manager Jacob Dladla, and former Ehlanzeni district municipality technical services manager, Tebogo Kubeka.

That charge suggests Bobby was part of the “gang” who corruptly collaborated to appoint construction giant Basil Reed to build the stadium.

My source says: “I will talk to the NPA. This case is not over. Not by a long way. This is just the first part of a bigger fish we want to fry. The public must know about the Mbombela Stadium.”

Without comment: The Oscar Pistorius affidavit

Charged with murder: Oscar Pretorius

Barry Roux, the advocate for Oscar Pistorius, read this 10-page statement to the court in Pretoria today, while girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp, shot four times at Oscar's home on Valentine's Day, was being laid to rest in Port Elizabeth.
Last year, Oscar - still just 25 - became the first amputee to run in the Olympics at the summer games in London.
His application for bail on a charge of murder will continue tomorrow.

"I deny the aforesaid allegation in the strongest terms.

"On 13 February, Reeva would have gone out with her friends and I with my friends.

"Reeva then called me and asked that we rather spend the evening at home.

"I agreed and we were content to have a quiet dinner together at home.

"By about 10pm on 13 February 2013, we were in our bedroom. She was doing her yoga exercises and I was in bed watching television.

"My prosthetic legs were off. We were deeply in love and I could not be happier. I know she felt the same way.

"She had given me a present for Valentine's Day, but asked me only to open it the next day."


"I am acutely aware of violent crime being committed by intruders entering homes with a view to commit crime, including violent crime. I have received death threats before. I have also been a victim of violence and of burglary before.

"For that reason, I kept my firearm, a 9mm Parabellum, underneath my bed when I went to bed at night.

"During the early hours of 14 February, 2013, I woke up, went onto the balcony to bring the fan in and close the sliding door, the blinds and the curtains.

"I heard a noise in the bathroom and realised that someone was in the bathroom. I felt a sense of terror rushing over me.

"There are no burglar bars across the bathroom window and I knew that contractors who worked at my house had left the ladders outside.

"Although I did not have my prosthetic legs on I have mobility on my stumps.

"I believed that someone had entered my house. I was too scared to switch a light on. I grabbed my 9mm pistol from underneath my bed.

"On my way to the bathroom, I screamed words to the effect for him/them to get out of my house and for Reeva to phone the police.

"It was pitch dark in the bedroom and I thought Reeva was in bed. I noticed that the bathroom window was open. I realised that the intruder/s was/were in the toilet because the toilet door was closed and I did not see anyone in the bathroom.

"I heard movement inside the toilet. The toilet is inside the bathroom and has a separate door.

"It filled me with horror and fear of an intruder or intruders being inside the toilet.

"I thought he or they must have entered through the unprotected window.

"As I did not have my prosthetic legs on and felt extremely vulnerable, I knew I had to protect Reeva and myself.

"I believed that when the intruder/s came out of the toilet we would be in grave danger.

"I felt trapped as my bedroom door was locked and I have limited mobility on my stumps.

"I fired shots at the toilet door and shouted to Reeva to phone the police.

"She did not respond and I moved backwards out of the bathroom, keeping my eyes on the bathroom entrance.

"Everything was pitch dark in the bedroom and I was still too scared to switch on a light. Reeva was not responding.

"When I reached the bed, I realised that Reeva was not in bed.

"That is when it dawned on me that it could have been Reeva who was in the toilet.

"I returned to the bathroom calling her name. I tried to open the toilet door but it was locked. I rushed back into the bedroom and opened the sliding door, exiting onto the balcony and screamed for help.

"I put on my prosthetic legs, ran back to the bathroom and tried to kick the toilet door open.

"I think I must then have turned on the lights.

"I went back into the bedroom and grabbed my cricket bat to bash open the toilet door. A panel or panels broke off and I found the key on the floor and unlocked and opened the door.

"Reeva was slumped over but alive.

"I battled to get her out of the toilet and pulled her into the bathroom.

"I phoned Johan Stander who was involved in the administration of the estate and asked him to phone the ambulance. I phoned Netcare and asked for help.

"I went downstairs to open the front door. I returned to the bathroom and picked Reeva up as I had been told not to wait for the paramedics, but to take her to hospital.

"I carried her downstairs in order to take her to the hospital. On my way down, Stander arrived. A doctor who lives in the complex also arrived.

"Downstairs, I tried to render the assistance to Reeva that I could, but she died in my arms.

"I am absolutely mortified by the events and the devastating loss of my beloved Reeva.

"With the benefit of hindsight I believe that Reeva went to the toilet when I went out onto the balcony to bring the fan in.

"I cannot bear to think of the suffering I have caused her and her family, knowing how much she was loved.

"I also know that the events of that tragic night were as I have described them and that in due course I have no doubt the police and expert investigators will bear this out."