A company owned by a 54-year-old woman was fined R10,000 and suspended for three years by the Nelspruit based Serious Commercial Crime after defrauding the South African Revenue Service (SARS) over of R464,000.
Matron Lindiwe Nkuna was the sole director of Mbaso Trading Enterprise. On July 7, 2011, her company was awarded a tender to the tune of over R3.7 million by the Department of Rural Development and Land Reform.
Mpumalanga spokesperson for Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation, also known as Hawks, Captain Dineo Sekgotodi said Nkuna failed to apply for registration as a Value Added Tax (VAT) vendor after being awarded the tender.
“Due to her failure to register as a VAT vendor with SARS, the tax collector suffered a loss of R464,446,” said Sekgotodi.
After receiving the funds from government, Nkuna made several transfers into her personal bank accounts.
Following an investigation by Hawks, Nkuna was arrested in September 2023 and released on R10,000 bail.
Sekgotodi added that the prosecution withdrew charges of fraud and money laundering against Nkuna.
Instead, she will be charged separately and at a later stage for corruption.
Meanwhile in an unrelated matter in Limpopo, the Specialised Commercial Crimes Court in Polokwane convicted and sentenced 36-year-old Thapelo Jack Mohlake, on 31 counts of fraud.
The court heard that between September and November 2022, Mohlake, who was an employee at Makhado Beer Distributors, defrauded the company of R528,751 by extending credit to customers.
Mohlake then directed the owing customers to pay their debts into his bank account, instead of paying it into the company’s business account, according to Limpopo police spokesperson, Colonel Malesela Ledwaba.
“The company noticed the incident and opened a case of fraud at Makhado police station, and the case was transferred to provincial detectives at commercial crime investigations unit for further investigations,” said Ledwaba.
Following investigations, Mohlake was linked to 31 counts of fraud and arrested as a result of police investigations.
Mohlake was then sentenced to five years imprisonment or a fine of R100,000. He was also sentenced to five years in jail, wholly suspended on condition that he does to not commit any similar offence.
“He was also ordered to pay back the whole amount of R528,751 into the victim's account with instalments of R50,000 which are to start in August 2024 until the money was fully paid,” said Ledwaba.
He opted to pay the fine of R100,000 and the instalments of R50,000 per month and was subsequently released.
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