Muvhango creator Duma ka Ndlovu granted R100k bail after being charged for tax fraud

Duma ka Ndlovu, the creator of TV shows including Muvhango and Queen Modjadji, has been granted bail of R100 000 after being charged for tax fraud.

Ka Ndlovu’s co-accused are Rodney Mutsharini, who is a registered tax practitioner that assisted Ndlovu with his personal income tax (PIT), and Maxwell Mloyi, who is an un-registered tax practitioner but assisted the television producer with his company income tax (CIT).

The three were arrested and charged on Monday. They appeared before the Palm Ridge Specialised Commercial Crime Court for their bail application on Tuesday. They are facing 18 charges of tax fraud relating to Ka Ndlovu’s personal and company income tax valued at approximately R26 million.

“Their arrest and court appearance are a result of a strengthened collaboration between the South African Revenue Service (Sars) and the Investigating Directorate Against Crime (IDAC) of the NPA, which uncovered an alleged collusion between the three in misrepresenting the personal tax affairs of Ndlovu and that of his company,” read a joint statement from the IDAC spokesperson Henry Mamothame and Sars’ spokesperson Adv Sipithi Sibeko

Ka Ndlovu was granted bail of R100 000, while Mutsharini and Mloyi were granted R50 000 bail each.

The court ordered the pair to surrender their travel documents, and report to their nearest police stations every Monday.

Should they wish to travel outside the borders of the country they should make an application with the court.

The matter was postponed to 11 November 2024 for further investigations.

The investigations

The collaborative investigations between the two entities discovered that a company owned by Ndlovu formed part of the investigations into Bain and Company, which was involved in fraud and corruption within Sars.

“This company allegedly subcontracted Ambrobite (Pty) Ltd, now known as Kanoboya Consulting (Pty) Ltd, owned by Ndlovu, to render strategic and project management services between the period November 2013 to September 2016,” read the statement.

This was “however misrepresented by Ndlovu and his tax practitioner, Maxwell Mloyi, when submitting tax returns to Sars. Mloyi together with Ndlovu declared to Sars that the company was dormant and that it never traded during the tax period 2013 to 2017, resulting in a financial loss to Sars.”

“In relation to his personal income tax, it was discovered that Ndlovu, together with Mutsharini, misrepresented his personal income tax return for the period 2016 to 2019.”

According to the statement, they submitted his personal income tax return for the year 2020 and 2022, but neglected to make a submission for the year 2021, “which resulted in another financial loss to Sars. The total financial loss to Sars due to these alleged offences is estimated at approximately R26 million.”

In 2021, former partner at Bain & Company SA, Athol Williams gave details to the Judicial Commission of Inquiry into Allegations of State Capture about how the consultancy firm had paid R3.6m a year to Ambrobrite, which is owned by Ka Ndlovu and musician Mandla Ka Nozulu.

These payments made Ambrobrite the second highest-paid external consultant globally for Bain.

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Connection to Bain

Bain sought to associate itself with influential politicians and public sector officials in order to gain government work.

The owners of Ambrobrite promised to use their close proximity and influence to introduce Bain to key stakeholders in the South African government, including former president Jacob Zuma and heads of state-owned entities.

In 2012, the former head of Bain in South Africa, Vittorio Massone, had a first of a handful of meetings with Zuma, which Ka Ndlovu also attended.

This initial meeting related to a project called ‘Phoenix’ which was aimed at Bain getting business in South Africa’s public institutions.

By 2013, concerns were raised internally with Bain’s leadership by Bain’s then-global head of marketing Wendy Miller, partner and former head of the Europe, Middle East, Africa (EMEA) region of Bain Paul Meehan and the firm’s global head of legal Stuart Min about the Ambrobrite contract, in particular, relating to the following issues:

• The non-verification by Sars of Ambrobrite’s tax clearance certificate; 

• The lack of public information regarding Ambrobrite (no company website, no financial information);

• The lack of business acumen and expertise on companies’ strategic and operational issues.

 Ambrobrite and Bain ended the contract in June 2016.

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