The East London Serious Commercial Crime Investigation (SCCI) in close collaboration with the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) secured the conviction and sentencing of three Zwelitsha magistrate court officials. Cynthia Nompumelelo Nobangule (69), Vuyolwethu Mashologu (62) and Nomathemba Gwanqana (60) were convicted and sentenced in three hundred counts of fraud of which were taken as one. The court sentenced each accused to six years imprisonment, wholly suspended for a period of five years, on condition that they are not convicted of fraud or any offence involving dishonesty during the period of suspension. In addition, the court imposed a compensatory order directing each accused to repay R60 000 to the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development over a period of 36 months.
The court heard that during the period between April 2003 and July 2004, the accused persons, acted either individually or in concert with a common criminal purpose, unlawfully and intentionally defrauded the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development through a calculated abuse of their official positions of trust. The accused systematically manipulated maintenance payment schedules, fraudulently reflecting that lawful beneficiaries had received maintenance payments. In furtherance of the scheme, they appended their signatures in respective official capacities as checking officers, cashiers, counter clerks and/ or sub-accounts, thereby falsely certifying that the payments had been properly verified, approved, and unlawfully disbursed in the ordinary execution of their duties. The beneficiaries were never paid, and the funds were deliberately diverted and misappropriated by the accused. A total financial prejudice suffered amounted to R240 625.00, with the offence not only resulting in direct financial loss to the state but inflicting profound socio-economic harm on maintenance beneficiaries who relied on these funds for basic subsistence.
