Church fraudsters Zola Maziyana and his wife Zukiswa Maziyana have been sentenced to a combined 24 years in jail for defrauding the Twelve Apostles Church in Christ of R7.9-million between 2010 and 2015.
Maziyana, 49, and Zukiswa, 41, were seemingly staunch members of the church’s Southernwood branch in East London when they set up an elaborate insurance scam, based on a fake investigation of a bargain struck between church members and a major insurance corporation.
The church, with branches in all nine provinces, has six million members nationally, and two million of these are in the Eastern Cape.
Hawks national spokesman Brigadier Hangwani Mulaudzi said Maziyana was sentenced to 15 years imprisonment for fraud, five for another count of fraud and five for money laundering. Zukiswa was sentenced to nine years in jail for fraud, three for another count of fraud and five for money laundering.“The sentences will run concurrently, meaning Maziyana will serve 15 years and Zukiswa nine.”
The judgment was handed down by East London magistrate Ignatius Kitching. The couple was arrested by the Hawks at their Sunnyridge home on June 23 2015, said Mulaudzi.
Yesterday the church’s legal adviser, Eastern Cape advocate Mfundo Mhambi, said justice had been served. “The church welcomes the sentence, not because it has anger against Zola and Zukiswa, but because justice has been done.
“It indicates that crime does not pay, and we trust it will deter would-be offenders.”
Mhambi said: “The church approached the police. The sentence of Zola and Zukiswa Maziyana was solely at the discretion of the court.”
He added that Maziyana duped the church into paying him R7.9-million after he was mandated by the church to launch an investigation into affinity fees owed to the church by a leading insurance company.
The money was paid to Maziyana over a five-year period as part of the costs of the investigation. Maziyana was asked to investigate why a leading insurance company which had made an affinity deal with the church was not paying the fees as agreed.
The company had urged the church to encourage its members to take up its life insurance policies. In return, the church would be paid 3% of the value of every members’ policy.
However, apparently the church was not receiving its 3%.
Mhambi said: “Zola misled the church leadership by saying that he had expanded the investigation by involving the SAPS, national prosecuting authority and asset forfeiture unit and even sent the president of the church, Austine Nongqunga, to meet up with a fake policeman by the name of Captain Dyoba.”
Maziyana further misled the congregation by saying he had discovered the insurance company paid the money to “certain individuals of the church” and that the AFU and NPA had attached their properties.
Mhambi said Maziyana kept telling the church that the AFU and NPA were demanding fees from the church to carry on with the investigation. “Between 2011 and 2015, the huge amounts of money paid to Zola by the church totalled R7-million. The church out of its funds, paid out those fees.”
Mhambi said Maziyana instructed Nongqumba to never disclose any information to anyone until he had concluded his final investigation report. “He kept telling the church that for the report to be finalised and the affinity fees paid out, such and such amount of money must be paid by the church.”
Uneasy about Maziyana’s endless excuses, the church decided to approach the police to confirm his stories, and that was when they discovered the truth, said Mhambi. — malibongwed@dispatch.co.za..