Labour Court: UJ Official Ordered to Repay R18 Million for Housing Bribes

Labour Court finds Andries Helani accepted more than R3.2-million in payments linked to private student accommodation providers An axed senior director of student affairs at the University of Johannesburg (UJ) has been ordered to repay more than R18-million to the institution for corrupt and fraudulent contracts for private student accommodation. This may be the first case of its kind, where an employee is held to account for fraud and corruption under the Basic Conditions of Employment Act's contractual provisions. Keep up with the latest headlines on WhatsApp | LinkedIn UJ claimed that Andries Helani, head of student affairs, had never declared any conflicts of interest. Judge Reynaud Daniels of the Johannesburg Labour Court delivered judgment on Friday. Read the judgment here . Helani was employed as the head of student affairs from January 2017 until he was dismissed in March 2024. He managed and oversaw the accreditation of privately-owned student accommodation funded by the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS). He was obliged to declare any actual or potential conflicts of interest annually. In 2021, Helani deviated from the usual accreditation process. Instead of the student affairs department running the process, private property owners were subjected to a tender process. However, as subsequent investigations found, Helani still maintained control over the entire process. In November that year, Mahlatse Investments applied for the accreditation of two properties in Jorissen Street and Bertha Street, both in Braamfontein. The tender committee was told that, in January 2022, the two properties were inspected by student affairs, occupational health and safety and protection services and property management. The committee ultimately accredited the properties. The Jorissen Street property was to host 748 beds and the Bertha Street property 693. UJ's payment merchant, Fundi Capital (Pty) Ltd, was authorised to enter into agreements with Mahlatsi Properties, whose directors were Siphiwe Khoza and Stanley Nkele. Nkele was also a director of Mahlatse Investments. Mahlatsi Properties was paid just more than R17-million for 1,441 beds over eight months. Following an initial investigation by Nexia SAB&T into the 2022 accreditation process, it emerged that the two properties had less than half of the promised beds. In November, students demonstrated over the lack of accommodation and other failed promises by the landlord. UJ then commissioned a more in-depth investigation by ENS Attorneys. That probe showed that the documentation submitted for the two properties did not meet compliance requirements. The Jorissen Street property only had 125 beds, and the Bertha Street property only had 174 beds. The probe found that it was unclear if protection services had actually inspected the properties and adverse findings by occupational health and safety officers were not taken any further. In his ruling, Judge Daniels said it was common cause that Helani had received several payments into his personal bank account directly from Mahlatsi Properties and/or Mahlatse Investments and Khoza. In March 2022, he received R30,000; in April 2022, R29,000 was paid to his son's school for fees; and in October 2022, he received R9,000. The judge said that Helani had received more than R3.2-million from the two companies and other private accommodation service providers through 366 payments between March 2021 and March 2024. During this time he did not declare any outside business activities or any relationship with any of the service providers. One student, who testified during the trial, told of how she was living at home when she was induced with payments into registering at the Mahlatse residence. Although she never lived there, she was paid R1,700 a month and a lump sum of R8,500. When Fundi stopped payments to the Mahlatse entities in late 2022, she was told to email the university and say she had been evicted from the residence, which she