Sentencing proceedings in the Ramaphosa, Mfeleng and Methi trial found guilty of defrauding Department of Labour’s Compensation Fund postponed
The Pretoria Magistrates’ Court on 24 August postponed the sentencing proceedings of three former employees of the Department of Labour’s Compensation Fund (CF).
The trio: Mr Maxwell Ramaphosa, Mr Samuel Mfeleng, and Ms Kgabo Johanna Methi were on 30 May 2018 found guilty for defrauding the Department’s Compensation Fund of R476 150, 58.
Ramaphosa and Mfeleng were found guilty on 10 counts of fraud and money laundering, and Methi was found guilty on three counts of fraud.
The sentencing proceedings were postponed because the Court is still awaiting the submission of presentencing reports from the probation officers and social workers, and the sorting out of legal representation for accused number two (Mr Mfeleng), whose attorney (Mr Fakude) has since passed away.
The three accused have been remanded in custody.
The three former officials of the Department of Labour’s Compensation Fund were found guilty of colluding with a physiotherapist Dr Jones Mothemola Modau by siphoning the Compensation Fund using fictitious claims and channelling the money into Modau’s account and a friend’s Driving School account which would later be shared.
The accused first appeared in the Pretoria Specialised Commercial Crime Court and their matter was transferred to the Pretoria Magistrates’ Court in a separation of trial, after Dr Modau based in Rustenburg, North West pleaded guilty in 2012.
Modau was in the same year handed multiple suspended sentences by the Pretoria Specialised Commercial Crimes Court for defrauding the Department of Labour’s Compensation Fund.
He was sentenced to three years of correctional supervision (house arrest), but allowed to go to work and church. On the same charge of fraud, he was also handed a further three years - suspended for five years - on condition that he does not commit any theft or fraud during the next five years. On a charge of money laundering, he was sentenced to two-years suspended for a five-year period.
In another case Ramaphosa and Mfeleng were in 2016 found guilty for defrauding the Department’s Compensation Fund R2,1-million and were handed 10 years imprisonment wholly suspended for five years by the Pretoria Magistrates’ Court.
The sentencing proceedings are now expected to proceed on August 29.
The Compensation Fund is a public entity under the administration of the Department of Labour. The CF provides cover to workers injured and/or who contract diseases at work.
Enquiries:
Teboho Thejane
Cell: 082 697 0694
