Times Of Swaziland: Ex-MP Myeza JAILED after  winning primary elections

Ex-MP Myeza JAILED after  winning primary elections
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BY MBONGISENI NDZIMANDZE  on 27/08/2013 02:50:00


MBABANE – Former Khubuta Member of Parliament, Charles Myeza, was yesterday
sent to jail two days after winning the Primary Elections.
The former legislature was sentenced to five years imprisonment at the High
Court. His sentence comes exactly two days after he was announced the winner of
the Primary Elections in his constituency. He was nominated for the position of
Member of Parliament.
Myeza was found guilty of fraud, forgery and uttering on Friday and was
sentenced yesterday. He defrauded the Royal Swaziland Police over E600 000. In
passing sentence, Judge Nkululeko Hlophe said he considered that Myeza was a
relatively young man who has a future and that he was remorseful. “The court
will issue a sentence that will not break him but one which will give him a
chance,” he said.
He said the court would, however, not lose sight of the seriousness of the
charges he was convicted of. Judge Hlophe said offences such as the ones Myeza
was convicted of were prevalent these days.
He said the accused was a first offender, has children and was cooperative but
it was not in dispute that he breached the trust which his employer had bestowed
upon him.
In coming to an appropriate sentence, the judge stated that he visited a number
of concluded cases which include that of Qhawe Mamba, Thembela Simelane,
Polycarp Dlamini and that of Sipho Marko Gama. In mitigation Myeza’s lawyer,
Noncedo Ndlangamandla from Mabila Attorneys, asked the court to consider her
client’s personal circumstances. She asked the judge not to consider giving
him a custodial sentence.
The Director of Public Prosecutions Nkosinathi Maseko, however, asked the court
to issue a sentence that would sent a clear message to other would-be offenders.
He said Myeza breached the trust that had been bestowed upon him by his
employer. He had been charged with his wife Phumzile, Musa Ngwenya and his
company PPC Electrical (PTY) LTD.  Ngwenya and Phumzile were, however, acquitted
and discharged in terms of Section 174 (4) of the Criminal Procedure and
Evidence Act 1938, after their lawyer, Mduduzi Mabila, moved an application for
acquittal on their behalf.
The thrust of the fraud charges was that on various dates between August 2004
and November 2005, all the accused persons, while acting in furtherance of a
common purpose, misrepresented to the Royal Swaziland Police that they had
performed certain electrical works as reflected in invoices prepared and
presented to the Royal Swaziland Police and subsequently to the Swaziland
Government Treasury Department for payment.
The contention was that there was either no such work performed or where any
work was performed; it was only a portion of what was claimed. Notwithstanding
these anomalies, the Government of Swaziland had, while acting on the advice of
the Royal Swaziland Police, paid the amounts claimed to its detriment. From
these incidents of fraud the Swaziland Government lost a total of E661 046.36,
which was all paid to the fourth accused’s company. He is said to have forged
these signatures to misrepresent that the work claimed for in each invoice was
performed.
With regard to the uttering charges, Myeza is said to have offered, uttered and
put off the invoices.
Judge Hlophe in his judgment, stated that it was not in dispute that the said
documents were actually processed for payment by Myeza who did so when he had
interest in PCC Electricial (PTY) LTD which prepared the invoices and presented
them for processing and payment. When finding him guilty on Friday, Judge Hlophe
said the falsity in this contention by the defence was in how and when Silindza
would have been able to ascertain and or confirm if the work was done including
its monetary value. He said they themselves had not suggested that Silindza was
part of any criminal enterprise done with them.
“It only complicates it further that the first accused (Myeza), who knew the
procedure well on the delivery of invoices and the related duties of the
Research and Planning Department, would go on and process such an invoice on the
say so of Mr Silindza who clearly would not have verified the said invoice given
it was the only one released to process payment,” continued Judge Hlophe.
The judge said in the case of Myeza as he could discern from his evidence that
he dealt with invoices of PPC Electrical he found deep in the Finance or
Accounts Department like he dealt with other invoices presented to the
department.  He said this he sought to infer from the invoices forming part of
the documents or invoices batched together with those of PPC Electrical (PTY)
LTD.