On Monday, 29 March 2021 Durban Magistrate’s Court sentenced Sizani Nxele (37), a former employee in the Department of Public Works in Ladysmith to five years imprisonment.
Nxele colluded with Bongani Sibisi (52) who owned a company known as Sihlose Okuhle Trading 28 CC to defraud the Department of Public Works. They defrauded the department of an amount of R620 000 by awarding three contracts to Sibisi’s company.
They claimed that the company did some repairs in schools. The Department of Treasury conducted an investigation and discovered that no work was done by the said company.
A case of fraud was reported at Ladysmith police station and the case docket was allocated to the Hawks members from Pietermaritzburg Serious Commercial Crime Investigation for further investigation.
After an intensive investigation, the two were charged for fraud and appeared in court several times until Nxele pleaded guilty. She was sentenced to five years direct imprisonment.
Sibisi will appear in the same court on 5 May 2021 for his trial.
