An arrest warrant was authorised on Tuesday for a former SABC account executive who failed to appear in court on multiple extortion charges.<\/p>\n
Thembani Mazaleni, 36, was to have made his ninth appearance in the Bellville Specialised Commercial Crime Court in Cape Town on Tuesday, but failed to do so.<\/p>\n
Magistrate Sabrina Sonnenberg ordered that the warrant be held over until his next appearance on November 25, and be executed only if he failed to appear then.<\/p>\n
Legal aid attorney Hailey Lawrence told the court Mazaleni was ill and she handed a medical certificate to the court.<\/p>\n
According to the charge sheet, Mazaleni’s duties included the verification of invoices submitted for payment by the SABC’s service providers.<\/p>\n
One of the service providers, translator Albertina Jaxa, did translations for the SABC in any of the country’s 11 official languages.<\/p>\n
According to the charge sheet, Mazaleni started borrowing money from her, but failed to repay her.<\/p>\n
Prosecutor Simon Leope alleges that the loans progressed to amounts that Mazaleni demanded from Jaxa, as “kickbacks” for work allocated to her by the broadcaster.<\/p>\n
Leope alleges that Mazaleni threatened to stop her workflow if she failed to pay the kickbacks, and warned that she would lose her contract with the SABC if she “blew the whistle” on him.<\/p>\n
Mazaleni’s alleged scheme also involved false invoices for work she had not done, for submission to her auditors.<\/p>\n
Leope alleges that he extorted a total of R304,000, between 2007 and 2011.<\/p>\n
It is alleged that Mazaleni also demanded that Jaxa fraudulently bill the SABC for work not done, for additional kickbacks.<\/p>\n
Mazaleni faces 78 counts of extortion involving R304,000, and two of fraud involving a total of R43,080.<\/p>\n
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