KWAZULU-NATAL – Nomfundo Mthembu (34), was convicted and sentenced by the Durban Specialised Commercial Crime Court for 101 counts of fraud and 102 count of money laundering on Monday, 8 April 2019.
Mthembu who is a former payroll official from Jozini Municipality was arrested by Hawks members from Durban Serious Corruption Investigation unit in November 2017, after investigations revealed that she created a number of ghost employees from March 2016 until January 2017. She then transferred almost R252 000.00 as ‘salary payments’ to her bank account and six different accounts belonging to her family members.
The court has sentenced Mthembu as follows, counts 1-101 (Fraud) sentenced to R10 000.00 or 30 months imprisonment of which R5000.00 or 15 months imprisonment is suspended for 5 years on condition that she is not convicted of fraud or theft or an attempt thereto committed during the period of suspension.
Counts 102 to 202 (Money Laundering) is taken together for the purpose of sentence. The accused is sentenced to 3 years imprisonment which is suspended for 5 years on condition that the accused is not convicted of contravening Section 4(a) and/or (b) read with Section 1(4)(i), 4(ii) and 8 of POCA Act 121 of 1998, committed during the period of suspension.
Furthermore the accused is sentenced to 24 months imprisonment i.t.o Section 276 (1)(h) of Act 51 of 1977 as part of her period of suspension of 5 years. In terms of Section 103(2) of Act 60 of 2000, the accused is declared unfit to possess a firearm.
