The repayment plan Kwenda proposed at the sentencing stage of his trial would have required a non-custodial sentence, Hughes said in her judgment on Tuesday.
The judge also took issue with Kwenda’s claim that he had shown remorse, pointing out that this should have happened when he resigned from Merseta, “not when he was fortuitously caught, several months after leaving”.
Kwenda committed the fraud with former First National Bank employee Brenton Tshepo Diutlwileng, who supplied fraudulent bank letters to Kwenda that changed the account details of 26 companies on Merseta’s database.
The fake details diverted Merseta’s payments - intended to fund educational and apprenticeship opportunities for young people - to a company owned by Diutlwileng. The men then split the proceeds.
Hughes said fraud was “a cancer that is crippling our country from the core and takes away from the poorest of the poor”. She added that the apprenticeships that could have been funded with the stolen money would have enabled beneficiaries to attain jobs - “a scarce commodity”.
When the men were convicted, Merseta CEO Raymond Patel said justice had been served.
“Kwenda used an elaborate scheme to defraud 26 companies of their due grants. Thousands of people could have been trained using that money. I trust this sends a message to all that the Merseta will not tolerate corruption in any form,” he said.
Seta's R5m fraudster fails in bid to shorten 20-year sentence
Image: Gallo Images/Thinkstock
A fraudster who helped himself to nearly R5m meant for disadvantaged young people has failed to persuade appeal court judges to trim his 20-year prison sentence.
Victor Kwenda stole the money when he worked as a grants administrator at the Manufacturing, Engineering and Related Services Sector Education and Training Authority (Merseta).
The sentence was imposed in 2014 by the Johannesburg Specialised Commercial Crime Court after Kwenda pleaded guilty to 26 counts of fraud involving R4.9m.
The fraudster told the Supreme Court of Appeal last month that the sentence did not take account of his guilty plea or his offer to repay the money.
But acting judge Wendy Hughes said this week that there were no substantial or compelling circumstances for deviating from minimum sentencing guidelines in Kwenda’s case.
The repayment plan Kwenda proposed at the sentencing stage of his trial would have required a non-custodial sentence, Hughes said in her judgment on Tuesday.
The judge also took issue with Kwenda’s claim that he had shown remorse, pointing out that this should have happened when he resigned from Merseta, “not when he was fortuitously caught, several months after leaving”.
Kwenda committed the fraud with former First National Bank employee Brenton Tshepo Diutlwileng, who supplied fraudulent bank letters to Kwenda that changed the account details of 26 companies on Merseta’s database.
The fake details diverted Merseta’s payments - intended to fund educational and apprenticeship opportunities for young people - to a company owned by Diutlwileng. The men then split the proceeds.
Hughes said fraud was “a cancer that is crippling our country from the core and takes away from the poorest of the poor”. She added that the apprenticeships that could have been funded with the stolen money would have enabled beneficiaries to attain jobs - “a scarce commodity”.
When the men were convicted, Merseta CEO Raymond Patel said justice had been served.
“Kwenda used an elaborate scheme to defraud 26 companies of their due grants. Thousands of people could have been trained using that money. I trust this sends a message to all that the Merseta will not tolerate corruption in any form,” he said.
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