- Former Pan Africanist Congress president Alton Mphethi has found himself in hot water again after he was tried for defrauding the Mpumalanga education department of at least R3 million.
- Investigators said Mphethi submitted duplicate invoices for the transportation of school children in and around the Gert Sibande district.
- He was sentenced to 10 years, suspended for five years on condition that he starts paying back the stolen money.
Former Pan Africanist Congress (PAC) president Alton Mphethi has been handed a 10-year suspended sentence on condition that he repays R3 million stolen from the Mpumalanga education department.
The first installment of R50 000 paid by the end of this month.
The Hawks said Mphethi, who had a contract with the department to transport school children in and around the Gert Sibande district, submitted duplicate invoices to the department.
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"He submitted duplicate claims to the DOE where he changed the invoice numbers and the dates when submitting the claims. The department suffered a loss of R830 000 on the first entity and R1 997 964 on the second one," said Hawks spokesperson Captain Dineo Lucy Sekgotodi.
Mphethi was arrested in 2015 and was convicted of 34 counts of fraud in the Ermelo Magistrate's Court at the end of July this year.
On Friday, the court sentenced him.
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His two companies, Ngwato and Barudi, were separately fined R100 000 each.
In 2016, Mphethi was sentenced to eight years' imprisonment for assault and defeating the ends of justice.
The criminal charges led to his expulsion from the PAC.
According to the State, he and other accomplices assaulted Swazi national Mthunzi Mavundla in 2008 after Mphethi caught him at the home of his second wife.
Although he was beaten to death, Mphethi and his accomplices were not convicted of murder.