BMW bike allegedly bought with money siphoned from Popcru

The National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) has obtained a preservation order in the Mbombela high court for R1.15m allegedly siphoned from police union Popcru’s bank account.                  

Apart from the money, the order includes the preservation of a motorcycle allegedly purchased with Popcru money. The union has more than 155,000 members.

The R1.15m is currently in the trust account of a Mbombela attorney into which it was paid to purchase a property. However, the property transaction fell through when the attorney raised a red flag about the origins of the money.

The order issued on 29 September was obtained by the NPA in terms of the Prevention of Organised Crime Act. It followed a lengthy investigation involving the Financial Intelligence Centre (FIC) and other law enforcement entities into alleged fraud and theft from the union’s bank account.

The motorcycle is registered on the national traffic information system (NaTIS) in the name of Popcru’s national treasurer, Thulani Nsele. Nsele was appointed to this position in June 2021 and is based at the Mbombela SAPS office.

A criminal case will now follow after the findings of the FIC and the issuing of the court order. 

Popcru president Zizamele Cebekhulu Makhaza responded: “The union can confirm that in terms of its own records, there is currently nothing untoward about the transactions flagged as the organisation received all the goods and services in accordance with the payments made. These records indicate that the funds were used for legitimate purposes.

“Popcru emphasises that law enforcement are currently running an enquiry, no formal charges have been laid against Mr Nsele to date, and that it is essential to uphold the principle of innocent until proven guilty. It therefore cannot make any judgments based on hearsay or unverified information.”

According to court documents, just five months after Nsele was appointed treasurer, R1.15m was transferred from Popcru’s account to the trust account of attorneys Basson & Vennote to transact on his behalf to buy a property.

According to the NPA’s founding affidavit,  the attorneys sent a regulatory report about the amount to the FIC as required by law. When the attorney requested Nsele to provide his bank details to proceed with the transaction, he allegedly requested the property to be registered in the name of his girlfriend.

The attorney then stated that because the girlfriend is not a client, they could not transact on her behalf. The attorney suggested they refund the money to Nsele’s bank account, after which he can pay it into the girlfriend’s account. She could then pay the money into the attorney’s trust account and request them to proceed with the property transaction.

Nsele allegedly failed to provide his bank details and in turn requested the money be paid into various accounts of a company of which he was not a director. He refused to have the money paid into either his account or that of a company in which he was a director. The attorney refused to do this.

Because of the suspicious circumstances, the FIC proceeded with its own investigation to determine the origins of the money. Investigators found that Nsele is a signatory to Popcru’s bank account and in October and November 2021 a service provider to the union was double-paid R7.2m for “year planners”. 

The same company transferred R112,112 to a car dealership for the purchase of a BMW motorcycle later found to be registered in Nsele’s name. According to court documents, the FIC determined this payment to be fraudulent in terms of the Prevention of Organised Crime Act.

The same company later deposited two amounts for a total of R1.15m into the attorney’s trust account for the purchase of a fixed property in Nsele’s name. It was this amount the court has now ordered to be preserved because the FIC determined it to be the proceeds of an alleged crime.

According to the court documents, the act of obscuring the payments through a series of accounts amounted to money laundering. Nsele’s hesitance to link either the property transaction or the payments to his own bank account, as well as his instructions to the attorney, directly link him to the alleged crime.