Khanyisile Nkosi

Khanyisile Nkosi

A former senior Scorpions advocate yesterday revealed how Portia Kgantsi, her friend and colleague, betrayed her by implicating her in an alleged corruption scandal.

Pravina Rughoomandan told the Johannesburg high court that she was in Tzaneen investigating a case on September 26 when she heard about her alleged involvement in corruption.

Rughoomandan said an attorney representing John Afolobi and Dijbril Mohamedou, the two suspects she was prosecuting for fraud, contacted her.

"He informed me that Portia was doing the [fraud] case on October 2 [the day of the two suspects' court appearance]. He said he was unhappy about that because [Kgantsi] was demanding money from his clients," she said.

"I was told that I was also implicated. I was very upset. I felt very betrayed," Rughoomandan said.

"It is not nice to have your reputation tarnished like that."

She said the news ruined her friendship with Kgantsi.

The state alleges that Kgantsi visited the two suspects shortly after their arrest and offered to assist them with their case in exchange for money.

She allegedly told the men that she would withdraw charges against them after taking over the case from Rughoomandan.

She is said to have demanded R10000 from the suspects to give to Rughoomandan for allowing her to take over the case.

Rughoomandan said she was not aware that Kgantsi was visiting the suspects.

She said she was "surprised" by Kgantsi's visits because prosecutors were not allowed to have contact with detained prisoners without their lawyers present.