Judge confirms 15-year jail term

APPEAL FAILS: EX-OFFICIAL HELPS SYPHON OFF R20M

Woman says magistrate didn’t take into account that she is in her 60s.

Aformer government official who helped siphon almost R20 million out of the Nelson Mandela metropolitan municipality’s (NMMM’s) coffers, has lost her bid to overturn the 15-year prison term she was slapped with.

Pumla Ntozini, a one-time payroll administrator for the department of basic education, and seven others were convicted of fraud and money laundering in 2018 following a five-year protracted court battle.

They were last year all given sentences of between 10 and 15 years behind bars but Ntozini took hers on appeal, accusing the magistrate who heard the case of not having taken into account her personal circumstances – which included that she was in her 60s and unemployed and that she cared for her sickly husband and grandchild.

She also overemphasized the seriousness of her crimes and the interests of society.

In handing down her ruling on Tuesday, though, Eastern Cape High Court Judge Judith Roberson upheld the magistrate’s findings.

The judge described the scheme as “breathtaking”.

“The modus operandi was the installation of computer software onto NMMM’s Corporate Access Terminal System, which software was designed to record keystrokes and e-mail the keystrokes to a syndicate member’s e-mail address, without the knowledge of the user of the municipality’s system,” Roberson explained,

“Through this installation, which was performed by one of [Ntozini’s] co-accused who was employed by [the municipality], the syndicate targeted and accessed [the municipality’s] Standard Bank account, and made payments to 61 bank accounts sourced by the syndicate and accessible to the members. The various amounts paid to the 61 accounts made up the R19 722 000.”

For her part, Ntozini helped recruit members and facilitated the use of a state witness’ credit card to buy the software, under the pretext that she was buying clothes.

The bulk of the stolen funds were recovered but just under R1.8 million remains missing.

“In my view the magistrate committed no material misdirection...,” Roberson ruled.

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Magistrate committed no material misdirection