MINING EXECUTIVE NABBED FOR APPROXIMATELY R1.2 MILLION IN FRAUD RELATED ALLEGATIONS

GAUTENG – The Palm Ridge Specialised Commercial Crimes Court remanded the 43 year old Andrew Plaatjie Khonziwe in custody after his first court appearance on fraud related allegations involving approximately R1.2 million theft yesterday.
It is alleged that in 2018 during Khonziwe’s reign as Chief Executive Officer at the mining company, Rhythm of the Nation, Khonziwe allegedly inflated invoices for services rendered by consulting firms administering the mining regulation laws operations.
Further investigation by the Hawks’ Serious Commercial Crime Investigation in Johannesburg revealed that Khonziwe allegedly supplied service providers with his company details, EPCM Mining PTY(Ltd) for quotations on mining license operations compliance regulation consultation done for Rhythm of the Nation. It was later established that Khonziwe allegedly changed the service providers banking details and put that of EPCM Mining Pty(Ltd) and inflated prices for payment.
Further allegations are that Khonziwe paid service providers and kept the rest of the money for himself amounting to R1.2 million for the period of months in 2018.
An intelligence driven operation was conducted on Monday which resulted to the arrest of Khonziwe in Booysens and subsequently charged for fraud.
The case is postponed to Thursday, 13 May for formal bail application and investigation continues.