By Lwazi Raul
Senyane Alton Seropane Mphethi (55), an influential businessman in Mpumalanga was arrested and sentenced to eight years imprisonment for defeating the course of justice on a murder case where he was sentenced for being an accomplice.
Mphethi had a contract with the Mpumalanga Department of Education to transport school children around Gert Sibande District Municipality.
According to Hawks disposable the greedy businessman submitted duplicated claims to the department where he changed invoice numbers as well as dates when submitting the claims.
The department suffered a loss of R830 000 on the first entity and R1997 964 on the second one.
The matter was reported to Hawks and the accused was arrested by the Mpumalanga Serious Commercial Crime Investigation team in 2015.
He was convicted on 31 July for 34 counts of fraud by the Ermelo Regional Court.
On 20 August 2021, Seropane was sentenced to 10 years imprisonment for five years on condition that he pays R3 million with the first installment of R50 000 on or before 30 August 2021. His two companies (Ngwato and Barudi) were fined R100 000 each. Asset Forfeiture Unit was involved on the sentence proceedings.
