Detective and fraud specialist at the South African Police Service (Saps), Catherina ‘Arina’ Oosthuizen, testified in the Bloemfontein High Court on Wednesday, that her investigations into the money paid from Siemens to accused number one, Stanley Bakili, beginning in December 2015, ultimately led her to the Windmill Casino tables and slot machines.

Referencing documents subpoenaed from the casino, Oosthuizen says Bakili placed bets - mostly in cash - at the casino to the tune of R 5 238 220, between 1 January 2017 and 30 June 2018. The fraud specialist alludes that Bakili blew a large portion of the money he allegedly extorted from the deceased during the same period.

Oosthuizen says she could not find “a regular income in accused one’s First National Bank (FNB) account” other than the money transferred into said account by Siemens via his three personal accounts and Maleba Trading’s account.  Siemens was the previous sole director at Maleba and owned 51% of the medical equipment service provider before CityMed bought him out for control of the company. It was revealed during this time, that Bakili’s bank statements did not reflect him receiving a regular salary or a rental income.

As already reported, Siemens was shot and killed on 10 May 2018 in the basement parking area of Preller Square Shopping Complex. It is alleged the deceased was paying bribes to government officials through Bakili to have CityMed’s hospital bed licence amended to allow for more beds when the business partnership soured. So far in the four-week trial, Free State Health MEC Benny Malakoane, former Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi, current Head of the provincial health department, David Motau, and member of the provincial department’s licensing committee, Charity ‘Pinky’ Belot, have testified they did not any bribes from Bakili or Siemens.

Bakili joins Molebatsi Mogoera, Kagiso Chabane, Mojalefa Jali Molusi, Moeketsi Lesia, Clive Tshivenga Karabo Tau and Sizwe Mpati in the dock. They are between the ages of 29 and 56, and include three police officers, a disbarred advocate, an accused in separate double murder cases, and a military man.

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