The State slammed the Municipal Infrastructure Support Agent (MISA) employee on trial for allegedly accepting a R160 000 bribe from Digital Vibes, accusing her of tailoring her evidence.

Lizeka Tonjeni appeared in the Specialised Commercial Crimes Court in Pretoria on Thursday, where the prosecutor, advocate Willem van Zyl, continued to cross-examine her.

Tonjeni has been charged with one count of corruption relating to a R3.9-million tender awarded to Digital Vibes in 2018. She was a project manager in the office of the chief executive at the time. 

During this time, she received several payments from Digital Vibes, which the State alleges was a bribe to further the company's interests.

In her defence, Tonjeni does not dispute receiving money from Digital Vibes through Tahera Mather, but insists that Mather gave her two loans and brought R60 000 worth of healthcare products from her.

According to a report by the Special Investigating Unit, Mather is one of the actual owners of Digital Vibes, even though the company was registered in the name of a petrol station manager in Stanger.

Changing her evidence

Tonjeni was running a side business, selling healthcare products she brought from a company named Zija International.

Tonjeni initially testified that clients could either pay for the products they had ordered via email with an EFT or could go to the warehouse and use their credit card.

However, this changed as the State went through 10 transactions where Tonjeni bought products.

The last transaction was more than a month before she received her first payment from Mather.

Tonjeni then claimed that a client could go to the warehouse and buy products with cash. In fact, she asserted that she mostly used cash to make purchases from Zija International.

"You never told us about cash purchases when you explained how you would transact with Zija," Van Zyl said.

Tonjeni said if she didn’t tell the court, it must have been a mistake.

Van Zyl accused Tonjeni of changing her evidence to suit her as the trial went along.

Tonjeni could also not provide invoices or receipts from her purchases because she did not have access to the email account she used at the time to make orders, and the Zija International branch in South Africa closed down, so she could not get the requisite documents from them either, she testified

The State detailed 18 payments made by Mather to Tonjeni.

According to Tonjeni, 15 payments were for the products, two were loans, and the third was for petrol.

The State pointed out that the payments made by Mather did not resemble payments made by other clients in any way. They were always far larger sums that were rounded off compared to payments made by other clients.

"Is there anything that prevents the payments of rounded amounts? Some other people also paid rounded amounts. I don’t think there is anything wrong with that," Tonjeni said.

On the alleged loan of R100 000, Tonjeni said it was for a farming business that she wanted to open. There was no contract, but only a written agreement.

To date, she has not yet paid Mather back, Tonjeni told the court.

"Yes, I have not yet paid her. I saw it was not a good time to pay her now because of the developments," she said.

This was seemingly after the Digital Vibes scandal with the Department of Health broke through the surface in 2021 following investigative reports by Daily Maverick.

The trial continues on Friday.