Dladla made his second appearance today in the Nelspruit Regional Court to answer charges of fraud, corruption and contravention of the Municipal Finance Management Act amounting to R920 million.

One of the reasons the court postponed the R143 million fraud case against Motaung, his co-director at Lefika Emerging Equity (Pty) Ltd, Herbert Theledi, and the company’s former chief executive officer, Chris Grip, on October 15 was to give the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) a chance to decide if Dladla’s case will be joined to that of the other three.

The NPA has decided to prosecute Dladla separately. Today, the NPA added another accused in Dladla’s case, Tebogo Kubeka.

Kubeka is a former technical services manager in Ehlanzeni District council, under which the Mbombela council falls.

Prosecutor Advocate Patrick Nkuna said Kubeka had been slapped with the same charges as Dladla.

According to the charge sheet, Dladla allegedly replaced Mbombela’s supply chain management staff with officials not in the employ of the council in order to change the outcomes of the bid evaluation and adjudication committees in respect of the Mbombela stadium tenders.

This alleged irregularity led to the appointment of the Mbombela Stadium Joint Venture, a partnership between ­Basil Read and French firm Bouygues Civil Works, for the stadium’s construction.

These are the same allegations that led to Dladla’s dismissal as Mbombela municipal manager in 2009 after an internal disciplinary committee found him guilty, but the ANC councillors decided to clear him early this year and to approve his R1.5 million golden handshake.

Current Mbombela municipal manager Mxolisi Mzobe and spokesperson Joseph Ngala have refused to answer written questions to clarify what will happen now that Dladla has been criminally charged on the same allegations the council decided to drop.

Magistrate Naomi Engelbrecht gave Kubeka R10 000 bail and postponed the case to November 27.

Dladla’s R15 000 bail was extended.

They were both warned not to interfere with witnesses, particularly former members of the Mbombela bid adjudication and evaluation committees during the 2006/07 financial year.