The Nelspruit Regional Court in Mpumalanga has sentenced a former deputy director at the Department of Lands and Rural Development and two others to 10 years in prison for fraud and money laundering.
Fraudulent tenders and documents
In 2011, former civil servant, Grace Mokoka, 46, fraudulently issued a letter of appointment to Sadia Trading, a company owned by Thandi Mndawe despite not submitting tender documents to provide any services to the department.
According to the Directorate of Priority Crime Investigation, also known as Hawksthe company subsequently received undue payments totaling almost R3 million [R2 950 000.00] for services ever rendered.
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The spokesman for the elite unit in the province, Lieutenant Colonel Philani Nkwalase, said that Mndawe and his business partner, Zenzele Mncwango, 52, were then ordered by Mokoka to make cash withdrawals, then some electronic transfers to other companies.
‘family matter’
He said requests for more cash were also made by Sikhumbuzo Nkosi, 45, Mokoka’s husband and mentor in the same government department.
Mokoka has misrepresented to the department that Sadia Trading CC, has completed infrastructure development work in two parts of the plot included in the land claim of the Endlovini community in 2012.
Invoices are submitted and payments are made through the normal process, even though Sadia Trading has never provided services to the public and has no right to receive the money.
The matter was investigated after a member of the public alerted the police to the scam.
Mndawe entered into a plea agreement with the state and he was given a suspended sentence in 2018 and served as a state witness in the fraud case against the trio.
The state seizes assets
“[Mokoka, Mncwango and Nkosi] each sentenced to ten (10) years imprisonment for fraud; three out of ten years suspended for five years with conditions. He was sentenced to three years in prison for money laundering. The trio will be effectively jailed for ten years,” Nkwalase said.
During the conviction of the trio, the court also granted a preservation order for the two-storey house in Kamagugu, seven vehicles and pension funds of the convicts.
Nkwalase said the elite unit’s Serious Commercial Crime Investigation team based in Nelspruit was able to secure the convictions of the three after a thorough investigation.
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