A six-year sentence has been imposed on a travel agent who defrauded the Provincial Education Department of more than R2 million.
Bathandwa Bazukile Ndyamara (35) and owner of Siyawela Travelling, was charged on the 9th of May 2021 with defrauding the Department.
According to Hawks Spokesperson, Captain Yolisa Mgolodela, the company was registered in the Basic Accounting System (BAS) of Education, which is used to pay suppliers.
“The complaint received a request for quotation via email. The request was purported to have been requested by the Department of Education in Zwelitsha”, said Mgolodela.
She added that Ndyamara was directed to source quotations from Royal Lodge, which is reported to be in Queenstown, Bay Lodge in Gqeberha and Fairview Lodge in Mthatha.
“The complaint requested the quotations from the respective Lodges and paid more than R2 million as an endeavor to secure the accomodations for the learners and educators, who were reported to have been attending a workshop”, said Mgolodela.
She further added that Ndyamara submitted invoices to the Department of Education and was not paid, because the Department detected that request for quotes was a scam as the Department had already paid for the same order numbers.
“The matter was reported to the East London based Hawks’ Serious Commercial Crime Investigation team for probing, for which resulted in the arrest of Ndyamara on 21 December 2021, he was released on a R5000.00 bail”, said Mgolodela.
Mgolodela concluded and said, after a series of court appearances he was found guilty in the East London Regional Court on Tuesday.
