Former Department of Justice employee gets 75 years in jail

After being found guilty on multiple charges of fraud on February 2, 2022, Ziqelekazi Matyholo (45) was sentenced to 75 years in total by the East London Regional Court on February 10, 2023.

Between May 1, 2008, through September 15, 2009, Matyholo worked for the Department of Justice as a Senior Administrative Clerk affixed to the Human Resource Section. According to the provincial Hawks spokesperson Captain Yolisa Mgolodela, she was in charge of arranging the redeployment, implementing relocation costs, furniture disposal, and resettlement benefits of the existing government personnel appointed to different roles within the department.

The Hawks stated that they discovered certain anomalies in which even new workers were awarded relocation costs and resettlement benefits for which they did not qualify. In December 2010, the Department of Justice filed a complaint with the Hawks’ Serious Commercial Crime Investigation unit in East London, which led to an investigation that resulted in Matyholo’s arrest on July 4, 2012.

According to the Hawks, the investigations showed that Matyholo requested invoices from the Service Providers for the removal of furniture for the Department of Justice staff who were relocating to various areas throughout the Eastern Cape and Free State. She prepared and presented to the Department the quotes and invoices for the removal of the furniture, which the Department approved and paid for.

“She then instructed the Service Providers to withdraw the money and hand it over to her. It later dawned that the Service Providers never even rendered the services. The Department of Justice was thus prejudiced cash to the value of more than R113 000,” the report stated.

According to the Hawks, Matyholo was arrested by the Serious Commercial Crime Investigation team of East London on July 4, 2012, and released on warning the same day. After thereafter, she appeared in court a number of times until being found guilty on Tuesday, February 2, 2022. Several times before her sentence on February 10, 2023, the case was remanded.

She was found guilty on 15 charges of fraud, and she was given a five-year sentence on each count. Major General Mboiki Obed Ngwenya, the provincial head of the Hawks, praised the team for its accomplishments with the case.