Siyancuma municipal officials Sonja Morolong and Boitumelo Sehako are expected to be sentenced in the Kimberley Magistrate’s Court on June 15 after they lost an appeal against their convictions this week.
SIYANCUMA municipal officials Sonja Morolong and Boitumelo Sehako are expected to be sentenced in the Kimberley Magistrate’s Court on June 15 after they lost an appeal against their convictions this week.
The matter was postponed in the special commercial crimes court on Thursday after acting Northern Cape High Court Judge Sieberhagen dismissed an application to appeal their convictions.
Morolong was appointed as a salary clerk but had requested to be moved to the human resources department, while Sehako was her immediate supervisor.
They are still in the employment of the municipality.
They were charged with fraud and money laundering in the regional court on November 11, 2018.
Morolong was found guilty of corruption, while both accused were convicted on 23 charges of fraud. Both pleaded not guilty to the charges.
Morolong was sentenced to five years’ imprisonment while Sehako was handed a three-year sentence on November 28, 2018.
The legal representative for Morolong, Riaan Bode, argued against the admissibility of video recordings that were made during a trap that was set up by the police.
A sample of Morolong’s handwriting was also matched to one of her notebooks wherein the names and amounts paid to some of the witnesses were recorded.
The prosecution contended that Morolong, in conjunction with Moses Mathee, had deliberately overpaid Plaatjie Bassie an amount of R4,455 instead of R800 for days worked.
It stated that a gratification was paid to Morolong by Bassie where he in turn benefited from the balance, while his bank account was used as a conduit for theft.
Bassie testified that he was employed by the municipality at some stage.
He decided to report the matter to the police as he saw Mathee “always carrying many envelopes to pay workers while there were not so many workers to be paid”.
The State alleged that Morolong and Sehako conspired with Mathee, who acted as an accomplice to “unlawfully, falsely defraud and misrepresent” the Siyancuma Municipality in making payments to “employees” who had not performed any work for the municipality.
The municipality in turn suffered financial losses amounting to R72,800.
During the trial, State witnesses testified that they received cheques from the municipality where the only work they performed was to pick up papers at the Douglas resort.
They were expected to provide their identity documents and bank details to the accused or their accomplices.
After receiving the cheques they were required to withdraw the money and make payments to the accused.
In some instances, they were informed that the money was paid erroneously into their bank accounts and were requested to withdraw the money and reimburse the accused.
In “return for their honesty” they received amounts varying from R250 to R300.
Another witness testified that she was offered employment at the municipality after handing money over to Morolong while they were seated inside Sehako’s vehicle.
Mathee pleaded guilty to the charges where he admitted that he worked with the accused.
He testified that he had not completed his schooling and was only able to write his name and surname.
Mathee explained that he was instructed to collect the identity documents of 12 persons who would be employed as temporary workers at the municipality and was also promised money.
He was supposed to receive R8,000 in respect of the salaries of four ghost workers as a benefit in June 2014 whereas he received about R5,500 for July 2014 payments.
Mathee indicated that he had to repay R17,000 as part of his sentence.
He denied that he told the identified people not to ask too many questions or acknowledge that they had received any money.
The municipal manager, Hastings Nell, related that he had not approved the cleaning project where the ghost workers were paid.
He indicated that Sehako held no authority to employ workers without his approval.
During the trial, Morolong indicated that she was unaware that ghost workers were being paid.
She explained that workers had to collect their cheques at the resort at the end of June 2014 so that their details could be verified by an auditor from De Aar.
She stated that she had written the information, including the identity document numbers and banking details of the employees, that were provided to her by Mathee on some of the documents.
Morolong indicated that she accompanied Sehako to the road near the Co-op where they met Mathee to deliver sausages that he had bought from Sehako, although no money was exchanged.
She said Sehako enquired about a person who came to collect a cheque at the municipal offices and was requested to collect R400 from Mathee for the money that he owed her for the sausages.
She denied that money was handed to her or Sehako and stated that she was not involved in the finances or payments of workers or drafting of employment contracts.
Morolong said she worked with Sehako in the same office and was appointed as the salaries clerk.
The trial court was of the view that the accused were “perfectly positioned” to commit the offences due to their job profiles at the municipality, which appeared to have “inadequate internal control systems”.
The court found that the accused were engaged in a “gratuitous, well-planned operation to siphon municipal funds”.
Handing down judgment on appeal, Sieberhagen stated that Sehako’s version with regards to her “clandestine employment” was “interspersed with contradiction and untruths” where she tried to distance herself from evidence provided in respect of the collection of IDs of prospective employees.
“The positions of the appellants are interlinked. The evidence does not justify a finding that the first appellant (Morolong) is guilty and not the second appellant (Sehako) because they are placed together at highly-incriminating moments such as in the car of the second appellant and at the meeting on the road near the Co-operation,” Sieberhagen said.
