Freedom switched off: Man in court for reportedly defrauding Eskom of millions

• A man who was accused of defrauding Eskom of R16 million was arrested and appeared before the East London Magistrates Court
• The suspect worked for a company that received a tender from the state-owned enterprise, and he allegedly submitted fraudulent certificates
• After an investigation led by the Hawks, he was arrested and released on an R5000 bail

Tebogo Mokwena, a Briefly News current affairs journalist in Johannesburg, South Africa, covered police investigations and court cases at Daily Sun for over three years.

EAST LONDON, EASTERN CAPE — The employee of a business that received a tender worth millions from Eskom defrauded the state-owned enterprises and was arrested a few years later.

Eastern Cape business employee appears in court

According to IOL, 36-year-old Samkele Magcakini worked for Sizamhlaba PTY Ltd. Siyamhlaba and another company reportedly received a tender from Eskom in 2020 to provide facilities management services for the SOE’s real estate in Mthatha.

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Magcakini reportedly submitted fraudulent health and safety files to the project inspectors. The files contained information about the project’s health and safety management. Eskom realised the certificates were fraudulent; by then, it had been prejudiced R6 million. The power utility then referred the case to the Hawks, who investigated.

Hawks arrest suspect after investigation

The investigation revealed the amount of money Eskom was prejudiced, and the Hawks pounced on him. Hawks spokesperson in the province, Warrant Officer Ndiphiwe Mhlakuvana, said Magcakini was arrested the previous week and appeared before the East London Magistrates court. He faced charges of fraud, forgery and uttering. The court gave him R5000 bail, which was postponed to 7 August while further investigations are carried out.

Absa employees convicted of over R1 million fraud charges

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In a similar article, Briefly News reported that two former Absa employees would be spending 10 years in prison for fraud.

The two used their access to the bank’s system and used the names of dead people and foreign nationals to open fraudulent accounts. Their activities were discovered, and they faced the music.

Source: Briefly News