Ayanda Matinise, a former messenger in the Eastern Cape department of health, has been sentenced to 10 years in jail for personal protective equipment (PPE) tender fraud.
Matinise appeared at the Mthatha Specialised Commercial Crimes Court on Tuesday.
The 37-year-old used his proximity to the office of the then health MEC Sindiswa Gomba to fraudulently award a PPE tender when government introduced a national state of disaster at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020.
The National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) said Matinise wrote, signed and sent a forged letter to a company called Falaz Protection Services in September 2020 pretending that the department had committed to procuring 700 000 nitrile, non-sterile, powder-free examination KN 95 surgical masks.
NPA spokesperson Luxolo Tyali said Falaz submitted a quotation and a declaration of interest to Matinise accompanied by a quotation valued at R23.7-million.
“Upon the authorisation of such supply and delivery through the forged commitment letter, a delivery of consignment of PPEs was made by Falaz at the department’s offices at O.R Tambo district stores in Mthatha,” Tyali said.
“When a director at Falaz demanded payment for services rendered, and even paid Matinise R3 000 to expedite the payment, it became apparent that the officials responsible for payment and issuing of commitment letters at the department had no knowledge of the commitment letter.
“The company decided to collect the consignment, but large quantities of it were missing, including 130 000 KN 95 masks and 70 000 surgical masks to the value of R2.6-million.
“Investigations by the Special Investigative Unit and the Hawks led to the arrest of Matinise,” said Tyali.
Matinise pleaded not guilty and attempted to implicate the officials who blew the whistle as having been involved in large-scale corruption.
The court rejected his defence and the prosecution prayed for the imposition of the prescribed minimum sentence of 15 years for fraud amounting to more that R500 000.
However, the court found that compelling and exceptional circumstances existed which justified a deviation.
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