Woman jailed 3 years for stealing R800 000 tithes in SA

A 43- YEAR- OLD Zimbabwean woman has been jailed for an effective three years for stealing R800 000 in tithes in the last four years.

Memory Mutsika was convicted by the Pretoria Specialised Commercial

Crimes Court for 128 counts of theft.

At the time of committing the offence, she was the treasurer of the Pretoria City Seventh Day Adventist church.

Her responsibilities included transferring tithe and offering deposited to the church account to the Northern Conference of the Seventh Day Adventist.

National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) spokesperson for Pretoria, Ms Lumka Mahanjana, said on Wednesday that during the period between 2012 to 2015, Mutsika transferred more than R800 000 of the money received from the tithe and offerings to her bank account. She said the woman converted the money for her personal use and that in court, she pleaded guilty to the charges and asked for a non-custodial sentence to pay the church back the money over five years.

“However, the State argued that Mutsika always indicated her willingness to pay back the money and has not paid back a single cent since March 2022, after she was convicted,” said Ms Mahanjana.

“The magistrate agreed with the State and said Mutsika showed no remorse, and that she only stopped stealing not because of her conscious, but because she was caught.

“The church placed her in a position of trust, but she betrayed that trust. He further said that he viewed Mutsika’s willingness to pay back the money, as a bargaining tool and as a ticket to keep her out of prison.”