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IOL reports that Lindelani Gumede, a bookkeeper who stole over R11m through the Unemployment Insurance Fund’s (UIF’s) Covid-19 Temporary Employer/Employee Relief Scheme (Ters) has been sentenced to 135 years, but is likely to spend only 20 years behind bars.
Gumede was sentenced at the Johannesburg Specialized Commercial Crimes Court on Thursday. Gumede was found guilty on 32 counts of theft for stealing over R11m by creating and submitting applications by employers on behalf of their employees on the Covid-19 Ters system in the form of Comma-Separated Values (CSV) files. Gumede used the details of employees of companies for which he did bookkeeping. The companies included Country Pies, LPG Clotilda, Odonus Investments and La Mela, none of which ever submitted applications for temporary relief funds to the UIF. Ters was aimed at helping employers by paying a limited portion of their employees’ salaries during a time when businesses were suffering and economic activity was experiencing a slowdown as many businesses were not permitted to operate. Funds from Ters were paid out to the employers who were required to make applications on behalf of their employees to the UIF. The UIF welcomed the sentence.
- Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Sisipho Bhuta at IOL
Get other news reports at the SA Labour News home page