State capture: 'My business was hijacked,' says woman who scored lucrative airport deal

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When she began her testimony on Friday, Tlatsana said the daily running of her company was taken over by people Van Wyk forced her to appoint, and she had no knowledge of the transactions being made - aside from SMS notifications from the bank.

R5m was diverted out of the account a month later. Van Wyk apparently told Tlatsana it was to pay stakeholders, purchase fire trucks and instal security cameras at both airports.

"The business was hijacked from me. The business was hijacked in the beginning because a lot of things were happening…I would not know, I would just see on the phone that money has gone," Tlatsana said. Another set of major payments came in November 2015 when a company called Neo Solutions was paid R5m by Koroneka. A further payment of R5m was blocked by the banks whose suspicions had then been raised, but when they called Tlatsana, she advised that the payments were being made for the purchase of security cameras. Thereafter, R4.8m flowed out to Neo Solutions - bringing the total to R9.9m.

Tlatsana said she later established that Neo Solutions paid the entire R9.9m to a company called Batsamai Investments. Batsamai was registered in November 2014, around the time SAX was concluding talks with the North West government to manage both airports.Deputy chief justice Raymond Zondo, who chairs the commission, asked Tlatsana if she continued to let her company be used to facilitate dodgy transactions because she stood a chance to benefit herself.

"I was just going along with this trying to trap him . I was just going along to get information to see what is he doing with all this money. It never came into my mind that I should contact a lawyer. I was just foolish by then," she said.Her testimony is continuing.

 

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Can please we see Mr Van Wyk's picture

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