Pretoria - An Eskom employee accused of fraud, theft and money laundering appeared at the Standerton Magistrate’s Court on Wednesday where she was released on R5 000 bail.
Mpumalanga Hawks spokesperson Captain Dineo Lucy Sekgotodi said Zandile Rosemary Ngcobo, 43, was arrested by Hawks in Middelburg and Eskom investigators.
Ngcobo was stationed at Tutuka power station as a procurement officer.
“It is alleged that as a procurement officer, the accused colluded with the service provider Umnandi Services and submitted fraudulent documents, inflated the prices from R60 000 to R939 000, causing actual prejudice to Eskom,” said Sekgotodi.
The matter was postponed to May 11 and will it will be heard at the Middelburg Specialised Commercial Crimes Court.
Ngcobo will be joined by other accused on this matter.
In a similar matter, 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.
Sekgotodi said Nwabisa Ngxola, 40, was sentenced on Wednesday last week by the Mbombela Specialised Commercial Crimes Court seated at the Nelspruit Regional Court.
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.
IOL