Tender fraud, accused handed 6 year sentence, Zeerust

Kealeboga Mongae (47) was convicted by the Zeerust Regional court on Thursday, 24 March 2022 for fraud. The accused was one of two contractors who were awarded a tender to repair bridges and internal roads by the Ramotshere Moiloa Local Municipality in 2012.

Subsequent to the services being rendered, the accused collected his cheque of approximately R689 000 for his portion of the work. A day later, an amount of over R1.2 million rand was mistakenly deposited into his bank account by the municipality.

An erroneous payment was noticed by the municipality and the accused was contacted to return the funds, he however confessed to have used a portion of the money and later made a payment of approximately R689 000 with an outstanding balance of over R580 000.

The matter was investigated by the Hawks’ Serious Commercial Crime Investigation and the accused made his first appearance before the Zeerust Magistrate’s court in 2019 where he was released on R20 000 bail.

He entered into a plea agreement and was ultimately sentenced to six years direct imprisonment for fraud.

The Provincial Head of the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation in North West, Major General Patrick Mbotho welcomed the sentence and commended the work put in by the investigator and the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA).