By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
Photo Credit:98.7.
Former head of engineering at the Passenger Rail Association of South Africa (Prasa), Daniel Mthimkhulu, has been sentenced to 15 years in prison for falsifying his qualifications.
The sentence was handed down by Magistrate Philip Venter in the Johannesburg Specialised Commercial Crime Court sitting in Palm Ridge on Tuesday.
Venter sentenced Mthimkhulu to 15 years in prison and six years each on two other counts of fraud. The sentences will run concurrently.
Mthimkhulu was convicted for, among other things, submitting six fraudulent tertiary education qualifications to Prasa, including a fake master’s degree from the University of the Witwatersrand; misrepresenting that he had a doctorate and demanding that he be referred to as “Dr Mthimkhulu”, despite a matric certificate being his highest qualification.
He also forged letter of employment from German engineering firm DB Schenker in June 2010 to illegally get his Prasa salary hiked from R1.6-million to R2.8-million. His pay was only R64 530 when he began as an engineering technician in July 2000.
As a result of the misrepresentation and fabricated CV, PRASA suffered prejudice in that his annual salary was unduly hiked from R1.6 million, as executive manager to heading the engineering services for a salary to the tune of R2.8 million.
The Johannesburg High Court had on Friday, 15 March 2024, attached both immovable and movable properties belonging to the convict in terms of the confiscation order of section 18 of the Prevention of Organised Crime Act. The Court has further ordered that Mthimkhulu pays an amount of R5,8 million to Prasa to recoup the proceeds of crime.
The guilty finding against Mthimkhulu was made despite valiant attempts from Prasa’s former chief executive Lucky Montana to defend his former colleague. Montana repeatedly said, during his testimony, that the convicted fraudster was innocent, despite the damning documentary evidence against him.
Montana resigned from Prasa in July 2015 after a series of reports that the state-owned company had spent R2.6-billion purchasing 25 diesel and 45 electric locomotives that were too tall for South Africa’s rail network. Mthimkhulu was the head engineer at the time of the acquisition.
The National Head of the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation, Lt Gen Godfrey Lebeya welcomed the sentence and applauded the hard work and efforts of the investigation and prosecution teams.
“This should serve as a lesson to would be fraudsters that crime doesn’t pay”, reiterated Lebeya.
The National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) spokesperson Katlego Mogale said this one of the “state capture cases that has been finalised and the public can be assured that other State Capture cases on the DPCI table will be dealt with amicably.”