In 2012 the KwaZulu-Natal Department of Economic Development paid R28.5 million to service providers to bring the North Sea Jazz Festival to Durban. No festival took place. Arrests followed in 2018; sixteen accused, including former MEC Mike Mabuyakhulu, who was alleged to have received a R300,000 bribe, went on trial in the Durban High Court.
After two years of evidence, on 30 May 2023 Judge Mahendra Chetty granted all sixteen a discharge under section 174 of the Criminal Procedure Act in a 100-page ruling: the State "has not lived up to the promise set out in its opening address"; the key Dutch witnesses had never been called; "a sniff of suspicion" could not convict. Mabuyakhulu: "We made it clear, at the outset... that we were innocent." The NPA said it would "be studying the judgment further". The R28.5 million has not been recovered. The record stands for the fact of the payment, which the court did not dispute, and for a prosecution that could not bring its own witnesses to court.