Extradition looms for UK graft accused

Michael Lomas is who is wanted in SA for a case involving $41.3m fraud, has a degenerative spinal condition and has told a doctor that if he is forced leave the UK, he will ‘take his own life’. The Daily Maverick reports that the England and Wales High Court last month denied his application to appeal a previous order that he should be extradited to SA. He was arrested in April 2021. The Special Investigating Unit said ‘Lomas is expected to join his co-accused, former Eskom (SA power utility) executives Abram Masango and France Hlakudi, businessman Maphoko Kgomoeswana and Tubular Construction CEO Antonio Trindade, in court’. The NPA’s Investigative Directorate noted that Lomas was wanted in SA ‘to stand trial for alleged fraud and corruption for a $41.3mm payment made by the power utility to Tubular Construction Project’. ‘The company was involved in the construction of Kusile Power Station, in which millions of rands were allegedly paid to Eskom officials in illegal gratuities for the awarding of lucrative contracts… This exposed Eskom to at least ($77.6m in costs,’ it noted. Last month’s judgment relates to his third attempt to try to appeal his extradition. It was based on issues including his human rights.

DM notes that the judgment said Lomas had an operation in April 2024 ‘to take the pressure off his spinal cord and his C7 nerve root, in the context of his multi-level degenerative disc disease’. After the operation he was sent to a care home and heard his extradition would proceed that same month ‘by means of a seven-hour flight to Doha’ and ‘a nine-hour flight to Johannesburg’. Dr Alan Mitchell said ‘currently Mr Lomas requires residential care in order to assist with his activities of daily living such as dressing and washing’. Mitchell said that on a commercial flight, Lomas would not be able to move every 45 minutes and if there was an emergency, he would not be able to assume the brace position. The judgment pointed out that a clinician, as discussed with the SAPS, would accompany Lomas on the flight. It found that in terms of Lomas not being able to assume the brace position given his mobility issues, this was not a pressing problem. ‘There is no evidence that a brace position is a prerequisite for all who fly,’ the judgment said.

Full Daily Maverick report