A former municipal clerk has been convicted and sentenced in the Peddie Regional Court in the Eastern Cape.
Ntombozuko Mgoqi, 43, was found guilty on charges of fraud and theft.
The case against her was investigated by the Directorate For Priority Crime Investigation (known as Hawks). The provincial spokesperson for the Hawks, Warrant Officer Ndiphiwe Mhlakuvana, said Mgoqi was a clerk in the expenditure department within the Ngqushwa Local Municipality.
Her co-accused, Nolufefe Mrhwebo, 42, was convicted and found guilty on May 25, 2016, to four years imprisonment.
“During December 2013 and June 2014, Mgoqi unlawfully and intentionally colluded with Mrhwebo to manipulate the municipal system to increase their salaries without the employer’s authorisation. Subsequent to that, internal auditing picked up discrepancies in their salaries and the municipality suffered a loss of over R200,000 from the unauthorised salary increase. The matter was referred to the Hawks for more investigation,” Mhlakuvana said.
The matter was investigated by the Hawks’ Serious Commercial Crime Investigation team based in East London.
“The investigation revealed that Mgoqi had intentionally manipulated the municipal system to increase their salaries without the employer’s authorisation. That led to the duo being arrested by the Hawks on 14 September 14, 2015, and appeared before Peddie Magistrate’s Court on the same day and later released on R500 bail each,” Mhlakuvana said.
Eight years after the sentencing of her co-accused, Mgoqi was sentenced to five years direct imprisonment with no option of fine.
Head of the Hawks in the Eastern Cape, Major General Mboiki Obed Ngwenya welcomed the sentencing and commended the extraordinary work done by the team in ensuring that the accused received a deserving sentence.
IOL