3 years imprisonment for stealing the Lord’s money

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The Pretoria Specialised Commercial Crimes Court has handed down a three year sentence to a 43 years old woman for stealing tithe money from her church amounting to R 800K.

NPA Spokesperson Lumka Mahanjana said the Zimbabwean national, Lady Memory Mutsika was appointed as a church treasurer of the Pretoria City Seventh-Day Adventist church when she helped herself to the church money for three years.

“Her responsibilities included transferring tithe and offering money deposited to the church account, to the Northern Conference of the Seventh-Day Adventist Church. During a period of 4 years from 2012 to 2015, Mutsika transferred more than R800 000 of the money received from the tithe and offerings to her bank account and for her personal use.”

“In court, she pleaded guilty to the charges and asked for a non-custodial sentence to pay the church back the money over five years. However, the state argued that Mutsika always indicated her willingness to pay back the money and has not paid back a single cent since March 2022, after she was convicted” said Mahanjana.

Handing over the judgement, the magistrate was of the believe that Mutsika only stopped because she was caught, had she not been caught should’ve continued with the crime.

“She stopped stealing not because of her conscious, but because she was caught.  The church placed her in a position of trust, but she betrayed that trust. He further said that he viewed Mutsika’s willingness to pay back the money, as a bargaining tool and as a ticket to keep her out of prison.  Therefore, a sentence of imprisonment was appropriate and criminal conduct has consequences” said the magistrate.

She was sentenced to 3 years of direct imprisonment for 128 counts of theft.