Three accused who have been linked to the R191 million irregularly awarded tender to fit blue lights on police cars have been released on R10,000 bail each after appearing at the Palm Ridge Magistrate’s Court on Tuesday.
Vimpie Phineas Tlafelang Manthata, his company Instrumentation for Traffic Law Enforcement, and two employees, Judy Rose and Daniel Rothman, are charged with fraud and contravening the Tax Administration Act.
Spokesperson for the Investigating Directorate, Henry Mamothame said their appearance emanates from a case wherein Manthata’s company was irregularly awarded a R191 million tender to fit emergency lights to police vehicles between March 2016 and March 2017.
Former acting national police commissioner, Kgomotso Phahlane and seven others are facing charges of fraud, corruption, and forgery in relation to this case.
“After the charges were laid against Phahlane and his co-accused, the investigating directorate extended its investigations into the tax compliance of the company, and the matter was referred to the South African Revenue Service (SARS) for a thorough probe to be conducted,” said Mamothame.
Mamothame said investigations revealed that some of the representations made in the tax returns submitted to SARS were not truthful because the taxable income earned by the company in the stated period were false.
“The gross income in these submissions was also falsified, resulting to a total loss of over R 27 million to SARS and the national treasury,’’ added Mamothame.
The matter was postponed to May 6, 2024.
sinenhlanhla.masilela@iol.co.za
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