Pretoria - A former administration clerk at Eskom was sentenced to 24 years’ imprisonment after she was found guilty of defrauding the struggling power utility of R2.6 million.
Hawks provincial spokesperson in Mpumalanga, Captain Dineo Sekgotodi, said Nwabisa Ngxola , 40, was sentenced on Wednesday by the Mbombela Specialised Commercial Crimes Court seated at the Nelspruit Regional Court.
“The total sentence is 24 years’ imprisonment, though the court ordered that the sentence should run concurrently whereby the accused will serve 10 years’ direct imprisonment without option of fine,” Sekgotodi said.
Sekgotodi said in November 2013, Ngxola, who was employed by Eskom at the time, and her co-accused Cinderella Moropane colluded with Micheal Chimanzi, the director of Chimanzi Investments and submitted fraudulent invoices to Eskom for services that were never rendered.
“Fraudulent transactions were channelled to Chimanzi Investments’ business account, which prejudiced Eskom to the amount of R2.6 million,” she said.
Chimanzi, 56, was found guilty of fraud, theft and money laundering on March 1.
He was sentenced to eight years’ imprisonment, which was wholly suspended for five years.
The court took into consideration that Chimanzi had already served four years in prison since his arrest in 2018.
Furthermore, the court said Chimanzi showed remorse and pleaded guilty from the beginning without wasting the state’s resources.
Meanwhile, Moropane is expected to appear in court on May 17.
Her matter was postponed after she was admitted to hospital.
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