Johannesburg – Lindelani Gumede, a bookkeeper who stole over R11m through the Covid-19 Temporary Employer/Employee Relief Scheme (Ters) Fund has been sentenced to 135 years, but is likely to spend just 20 years behind bars.
Gumede was sentenced at the Johannesburg Specialized Commercial Crimes Court on Thursday.
Gumede was found guilty on 32 counts of theft for stealing over R11m by creating and submitting applications for employees on the Covid-19 Ters system, on behalf of their employers, in the form of Comma-Separated Values (CSV) files.
Gumede used the details of employees of companies for which he did bookkeeping.
The companies included Country Pies, LPG Clotilda (Pty) Ltd, Odonus Investments (Pty) Ltd and La Mela (Pty) Ltd, which are all said to have never submitted applications for temporary relief funds to the UIF.
Gumede is expected to spend up to 20 years in jail as some of his sentences were ordered to run simultaneously.
Senior state advocate Frans Mhlongo urged the court not to deviate from imposing the minimum prescribed sentence, arguing that the Ters benefit was a direct response by the government to the economic effects of the pandemic.
Mhlongo said the looting of these coffers diverted money for much-needed assistance away from destitute citizens and worthy projects.
“The public need to know that there are consequences for misappropriation and abuse of public coffers,” said Mhlongo.
Ters was initially introduced by the government for the 5 months during which the hard lockdown was expected to run, after a national state of disaster was declared on March 26, 2020, in response to the pandemic.
Ters was aimed at helping employers by paying a limited portion of their employees’ salaries during a time when businesses were suffering and economic activity was experiencing a slowdown as many businesses were not permitted to operate.
Funds from Ters were paid out to the employers who were required to make applications on behalf of their employees to the UIF.
The NPA has applauded the investigating officer, Warrant Officer Thamsanqa Kraai, and Mhlongo for securing a sentence that served to teach the public that the days of abusing and misappropriating public funds were over.
The UIF has also welcomed the sentence.
IOL