DURBAN – Durban-based businesswoman Khanyisile Casianna Gumede (53) was sentenced to 18 years’ direct imprisonment, while her company, GG Catering and General Services CC, received a R2 million fine, wholly suspended for five years. The Durban Regional Court handed down the hefty sentence on Friday -31 July following her conviction on five counts of fraud involving about R3.7 million in fraudulent VAT claims and one count of money laundering.
The National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) in KwaZulu-Natal has welcomed the verdict and Natasha Ramkisson-Kara, regional spokesperson for the NPA, said that Gumede was further declared unfit to possess a firearm. The company’s fine was suspended on condition that it is not convicted of similar crimes during the period. Sentencing was based on compelling evidence presented during the trial
In a statement issued, Ramkisson-Kara said that Gumede’s company was registered with the South African Revenue Service (SARS) for Value-Added Tax (VAT), with her serving as its VAT representative. Advocate Zinhle Mthembu led the evidence of five witnesses, including SARS officials and a former employee of Gumede.
Ramkisson-Kara said a SARS investigation uncovered the fraud. Evidence revealed that between February and October 2018, Gumede submitted fraudulent VAT returns on behalf of the company by inflating input tax and declaring nil output tax. These false declarations resulted in unlawful VAT refunds, despite the company not trading during that period and therefore not incurring any qualifying expenses.
In aggravation of sentence, the State called a SARS criminal investigator, who testified that VAT fraud is a widespread problem. The investigator informed the court that SARS had suffered a loss of R3.7 million, none of which had been recovered. In sentencing, the court treated the five counts of fraud as one for purposes of sentence, resulting in Gumede being sentenced to 15 years’ imprisonment for the fraud convictions and 10 years for money laundering. The court ordered that seven years of the money laundering sentence run concurrently with the fraud sentence, resulting in an effective sentence of 18 years’ direct imprisonment.
