Former Msunduzi supervisors convicted, sentenced for fraud

Two former supervisors in Msunduzi Electricity Department have been convicted and sentenced on 24 counts of fraud by the Durban Commercial Crimes Court.

This, after the two had pleaded guilty to multiple counts of fraud when the matters were under investigation by the city’s internal audit unit.

City manager, Lulamile Mapholoba, welcomed the recent convictions and sentencing, stating that this was a sign that justice prevails and this should be a deterrent to other employees who could be having similar thoughts or ideas.

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“This conviction and sentencing follow a lengthy trial where the accused was ‘toying with justice’ and coming up with unnecessary delays. This case emanates from investigations by the internal audit unit which started in the 2014/15 financial year where at least three foremen at the electricity department were raking in overtime.”

The investigation uncovered overtime fraud; one foreman (Reeaz Paruk) was convicted and sentenced on 105 counts of fraud involving actual losses of R385 102,94 to the municipality and potential prejudice of R22 440,96, which was stopped by the internal audit unit. The accused entered into a plea with the state in terms of Section 105A of Act 51 of 1977. He agreed to cede R385 102,94 from his pension to the municipality.
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The court fined him R40 000 or five years imprisonment. He was also sentenced to a five-year sentence, suspended for five years on the condition that he is not convicted of fraud. He was further ordered to pay the city what he had stolen.

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He said another foreman, Wiseman Mthembu was also convicted and sentenced after pleading guilty on 22 counts of overtime fraud.

He was fined R30 000 and opted to cede his pension after the court ordered R151 068,13 be deducted from his pension and be paid over to Msunduzi Municipality after he resigned.

“We hope that these sentences will deter other municipal employees from committing fraud, corruption and theft and that it shows that the results of forensic investigations can now go to the courts for people to account for their evil deeds.

“The fraud and corruption is preventing the municipality from complying fully with the Bill of Rights which talks about human dignity and improvement of the quality of life of all citizens through service delivery, as stated in Chapter 2 of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa.”

Msunduzi Municipality is still suffering from these evil deeds by some of its employees; however, various investigations on fraud and corruption are completed and are with the law enforcement agencies and some are under investigation by our internal audit unit.
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According to the court papers the three, in their pleas, admitted to having submitted falsified overtime claim forms to claim more money than they were entitled to.

They also admitted to forging vehicle trip reports which differed from the system used to track the vehicles used for callouts, to claim extra overtime.