Two Beitbridge officials sent to jail for illicit cigarettes
Nthapeleng Munyai and and Tsumbedzo Nemangani were arrested for permitting an interlink truck loaded with 614 boxes of semi-manufactured tobacco to enter the country from Zimbabwe using fraudulent documents.
LIMPOPO – The Musina Regional Court sentenced Nthapeleng Adler Munyai (47), a former manager of Pamdozi Cargo International CC Clearing Agent, and Tsumbedzo Priscilla Nemangani Mashito(47), a former Sars customs verification officer at the Musina Beitbridge Border Post, to an effective 15 years direct imprisonment term for fraud and forgery and two counts of corruption.
The spokesperson for National Prosecution Authority in Limpopo, Mashudu Malabi-Dzhangi said evidence revealed how in an incident on March 14, 2016 the two were arrested for permitting an interlink truck with two trailers, loaded with 614 boxes of semi-manufactured tobacco to the value of over R6m to enter the country from Zimbabwe, using fraudulent consignment clearance documents and thereby flouting required customs clearance process and procedures.
“A truck was stopped at the Musina weighbridge by an officer of the Road Traffic Management Cooperation, who, upon noticing that the trailer’s registration number plates did not correspond with the licence disks, on reasonable grounds suspected that there could be something untoward with the load. He then contacted his senior who was off duty and requested intervention which resulted in the truck being redirected to the customs ramp under police and traffic official escort for inspection,” Malabi-Dzhangi said.
She said Munyai offered a witness, gratification of R50 000 while the two were still at the weighbridge, for him not to have the truck return for inspection, and “with total disregard for the consequences of his actions continued to offer gratification of R200 000 to the witness (customs official) for him not to carry out any inspection of the truck”.
It surfaced that Mashito had just reported for work from leave and had swapped her original duty shift posting.
She was also found to have been instrumental in the processing of the truck and its consignment outside the normal and ordinary customs clearance process and procedures and had misrepresented to her employer (Sars) how the transaction relating to the truck was dealt with.
Prosecutor, Adv Malope Maponya of the specialised tax unit, led the evidence of Road Traffic Management Cooperation officer, junior and senior SARS customs officials and managers, clearing agent officials and managers in proving the state’s case against the two.
Maponya also presented victim impact statement evidence in aggravation of the sentence.
The presiding officer concluded that the aggravating circumstances far outweighed the mitigating factors and that the accused failed to present substantial and compelling circumstances warranting the court to deviate from imposing the prescribed minimum sentence. The court sentenced both accused to an effective 15 years’ direct imprisonment.
The truck with its two trailers and 614 boxes of tobacco were forfeited to the state.
The Director of Public Prosecutions, Adv Ivy Thenga welcomed the sentences and considered them a deterrent to would-be perpetrators of similar offences.
She commended the cooperation from the Road Traffic Management Cooperation, Sars customs and internal investigations units, DPCI serious commercial crimes investigations with the NPA and extended her gratitude to the government officials who she said “remained honest and refused to allow themselves to be tempted by the huge amounts of gratification offered to them by the perpetrators”.
