The Bellville Specialised Commercial Crimes Court released corruption accused Elizabeth Joan Davids on warning following her arrest for allegedly manipulating the income and expenditure of clients in order to qualify them for finance loans and credit cards.
“Davids was employed by Absa Bank in Claremont as a sales consultant.
“It is alleged that she manipulated the income and expenditure of clients in order to qualify them for finance loans and credit cards and she in turn received cash from the clients as gratification and because of these corrupt activities Absa was prejudiced of an amount of R460 000,” said Hawks spokesperson Zinzi Hani.
She said Davids appeared in court on Friday following her arrest by the Bellville-based Serious Commercial Crime Investigation team of the Hawks on Thursday - the same day the Mthatha Specialised Commercial Crimes court convicted and sentenced former South African Post Office branch manager Nonthuthuko Mfengwana in Mqanduli, Eastern Cape.
The 62-year-old was found guilty of defrauding the entity by manipulating the Post Office point sales system so that deposits never reflected in the bank account in 2011.
She made eight transactions and received the money in tranches. This resulted in the Post Office being prejudiced of R593 000.
An internal auditing picked up some discrepancies and the matter was reported to the Hawks for further investigation.
“The investigation revealed that Mfengwana actually admitted that she misappropriated the Post Office funds for personal gain.
“On 11 April 2011, Mfengwana was ultimately arrested by the team of the Hawks and appeared on the same day in Mthatha Specialised Commercial Crimes court where she was released on a R2000 bail.
“Mfengwana made several court appearances until she was convicted and sentenced by Mthatha Specialised Commercial Crimes court on 14 September 2023,” said Hawks Eastern Cape spokesperson Ndiphiwe Mhlakuvana.
Mfengwana was convicted and sentenced to 10 years’ imprisonment, wholly suspended for five years on condition that she does not commit theft during the period of suspension.
Meanwhile, Wanda McCarthy, a Saldanha Bay businesswoman who is a director of Securimed Response CC t/a Crime Force, appeared in the Vredenburg Magistrates’ Court facing charges related to a security tender fraud worth more than R26 million.
She was released on R20 000 bail and ordered not to contact Saldanha Bay Local Municipality officials following her appearance.
The State alleges that McCarthy misrepresented when she submitted a bid for a security tender.
A whistle-blower reported irregularities in the awarding of the tender to the Presidential Hotline and the matter was referred to the Special Investigations Unit for investigation.
“Scrutiny of the company found that the accused had made misrepresentations, stating that her company had a workforce of between 400 to 600 employees and a registered fleet of more than 10 vehicles.
“Between February and March 2018, the company’s bank statements reflected payments to 27 employees for February 2018, 90 employees for March 2018 and 90 employees for April 2018, with a total of R357 273.00.
“This meant that the company had an average of 69 employees between March and April 2018,” said the National Prosecuting Authority.
Investigations also revealed that two vehicles, which the accused claimed were part of her registered fleet, were in fact owned by two private individuals who were not employed by her company and the vehicles were not rented by the company from the two individuals.
Cape Times