MTN WOMAN ARRESTED FOR E7m AIRTIME THEFT

MBABANE – A Swazi MTN employee was on Friday arrested and charged with theft of E7 million worth of airtime.

Swazi MTN Stock Controller Lungile Nduli (47) appeared before the High Court on Saturday where she was released on E50 000 bail. She was ordered to pay E10 000 cash and E40 000 in the form of surety.
Swazi MTN Corporate Affairs Manager Mpumelelo Makhubu could not be reached for comment.

Leading to her arrest, she first faced a disciplinary hearing for the alleged misappropriation of over E8 million worth of airtime cards.
She ran to court in a bid to stop the hearing after her application to have the charges preferred against her set aside was dismissed by her employer.

Dishonesty

She was based at the company’s warehouse in Matsapha and had initially been charged with dishonesty in that she allegedly processed physical airtime cards, cellular phone orders and invoices for stock amounting to E8 114 100 fraudulently.
She had also been charged with neglecting to finalise the processing of recorded physical airtime orders resulting in the depletion of stock.

 The stock was allegedly under her custody and was subsequently unlawfully removed or appropriated from the warehouse and she is alleged to have failed to account for.
Swazi MTN instituted disciplinary proceedings against Nduli based on the aforementioned charges. 
She alleged that during the hearing, which commenced on March 17, 2014, she became suspicious when she was allegedly told that there would be no witnesses called during the matter. 

Initiators

“I wish to point out that this statement from the initiators that they will not call any witnesses immediately made me suspicious of the hearing, that it was first a sham because in such matters, the employer has to adduce evidence to prove its case and the evidence presented by witnesses who must have first-hand information relating to the facts to prove the charges against me,” she stated.
 Nduli alleged that the initiators produced as evidence documents that had been prepared by other employees.

She further alleged that the same initiators were not involved during a stock count so they could not be in a position to verify the contents of the documents they submitted as evidence.
 While still contesting the disciplinary proceedings, she argued that her employer had not presented any evidence which pointed to her as the person who allegedly misappropriated or stole the airtime cards.
She had labelled the evidence of the initiators as hearsay.

The stock controller alleged the initiators stated that they did not know how the airtime was removed from the warehouse and who did it.
 Nduli also alleged that her employer refused to furnish her with the serial numbers of the airtime cards that had allegedly been misappropriated to prove that they were indeed stolen from the warehouse. 
She stated that such evidence that was allegedly being withheld from her could possibly exculpate her.

Guilty

 Nduli is worried that should she be found guilty, she stood to be dismissed from her employ. She said, as a result, she would become unemployable in future. 
Swazi MTN, in March, suspended three staff members over possible airtime fraud.  The mobile phone company issued a statement then confirming that it was investigating possible airtime fraud. In 2011, six individuals including two SA MTN staff members were arrested in South Africa for allegedly defrauding the company airtime worth millions of rands in a similar incident.

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