A suspended ten-year sentence was also handed down.
He was found guilty by Magistrate Venessa Joubert in February this year.
Mapyane was arrested in May 2014 for submitting false travel claims of approximately R14 000. He was released on R1 000 bail.
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The Nelspruit Regional Court on Friday ruled that Mapyane has to pay a fine of R5 000 on each count, and also sentenced him to two years per count, suspended for five years.
During the course of the trial testimony pertaining to his fraud was delivered by high-profile witnesses. The list included a scientist from the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), a state advocate, a warrant officer and a general from the South African Police Services’ Organised Crime Unit.
Mapyane was found guilty of claiming travel expenses for official trips he never undertook.
According to the charge sheet, Mapyane requested remuneration to the amount of R2 805,84 for travel expenses pertaining to a court case he had to attend in Pretoria on August 1, 2 and 3, 2010.
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He filed more claims for work-related travels between Mbombela and Pretoria, amounting to R5 551,06 on September 1 and 2, 2010. Mapyane had also claimed R2 391,90 after travelling to Ogies on April 25, 2012.
He was also charged with claiming R2 805,85 in travel expenses pertaining to a work trip on September 9, 2010.
Dr Peter Schmitz, a data mapping expert, testified by using data from cellphone-tower base stations to map the locations of Mapyane’s cellphone on some of the dates in question. According to Schmitz, the data indicated that the cellphone did not leave Mbombela on September 1.
Two witnesses were called about the incident on April 25, 2012.
Warrant officer Paul Holtzhauzen testified that he was called to the Ogies Police Station on Mapyane’s instruction on that day. Holtzhauzen recalled seeing the police’s Hyundai H1 bus enter the station’s grounds.
According to his testimony, Mapyane was seated inside it. Holtzhauzen said that the arrival and departure of a general was not something that went by unnoticed. He did not see Mapyane’s private vehicle, in which he had travelled according to his travel claims, at the police station.
Gen Elliot Dlamini testified that he had not seen Mapyane arrive at the station on April 25. He also testified about the circumstance involved when a general departed from a police station.
“Procedure requires that if a senior official leaves, I must escort him to his vehicle. I walked with him to the vehicle – a white Hyundai. I saluted him to show respect as he held senior office.”
