LEONARD NEILL FORMER ECDC chief executive Mcebisi Jonas and two senior colleagues who were suspended from duty last year on allegations of fraud, have been cleared of all charges in the East London High Court. The allegations against them related to the R9,2million sale of the Mpekweni resort. Jonas, property development director Don Maclean, and finance director John Cerff were suspended after what Jonas has described as a ‘political and malicious witch hunt.’ Judge Dayalin Chetty told the court last week ‘there is not a shred of evidence, even remotely implicating the accused in the commission of this offence.’ In a 99-page judgment, Chetty said: “It appears from the evidence that the arrest of the three accused was heralded by much fanfare. The entire edifice of the State case was based on a forensic report. Why and for what reason it was obtained I need not speculate. Suffice to say it was ill-conceived. “The result of this is that the three accused were hauled before a court of law where their integrity was denigrated and their honesty was sought to be impugned. Fraud implies dishonesty and that stigma which this prosecution has engendered may not necessarily be erased by a pronouncement of not guilty.”
