Former PAC leader found guilty of defrauding Mpumalanga Education Dept of over R 2Million
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Former Pan African Congress of Azania (PAC) leader lost yet another court case this time on corruption and fraud against Mpumalanga Department of Education.
Senyane Alton Seropane Mphethi, first allegedly lost his presidency status in the party following his arrest and sentencing to eight years imprisonment for defeating the course of justice on a murder case for being an accomplice.
This time around the accused had a contract with the Mpumalanga Department of Education (DOE) in Mpumalanga to transport school children around Gert Sibande District Municipality.
Hawks Spokesperson in the area Captain Dineo Lucy Sekgotodi said that it was not long after getting the contract when Mphethi started doing dodgy dealings.
Sekgotodi said Mphethi submitted duplicate claims to the DOE where he changed the invoice numbers and the dates when submitting the claims.
As a result his actions saw the department losing over R 2Million.
“The department suffered a loss of R830 000 on the first entity and R1 997 964 on the second one.”
“The matter was reported to the Hawks and the accused was arrested by the Mpumalanga Serious Commercial Crime Investigation team in 2015. He was convicted on 31 July for 34 counts of fraud by the Ermelo Regional Court” said Captain Sekgotodi.
Mphethi was sentenced to 10 years imprisonment on Friday.
The sentence is wholly suspended for five years on condition that he pays R3 million with the first installment of R50 000 on or before 30 August 2021. His two companies (Ngwato and Barudi) were fined R100 000 each.
