A Bellville Commercial Crime Court magistrate has sentenced a former City of Cape Town employee to three years in jail.
|||A Bellville Commercial Crime Court magistrate berated a former City of Cape Town employee for showing no remorse about running a housing scam and sentenced her to three years behind bars.
“Madam, you have shown no remorse for your actions,” magistrate Amrith Chabilall said on Thursday.
“You have led this court on a merry-go-round of your fanciful version of what happened.”
He said the only appropriate sentence for Nomkhitha Matinisi, 48, of Langa, was direct imprisonment.
Chabilall sentenced Matinisi to five years in jail, suspending two for five years on condition she was not convicted of a similar offence during the period of suspension.
Matinisi will spend an effective three years in jail.
Earlier on Thursday, Chabilall found that the State had proved, beyond reasonable doubt, that Matinisi, who had worked as a liaison officer between the Langa community and the local municipality’s housing department, was guilty of eight counts of corruption.
The court found that she, between January 2008 and July 2008, had sold houses, meant for victims of a huge fire which had devastated an area of Langa in 2005, to other people
The State proved that Matinisi offered people a “short-term” option of securing a house almost immediately. People were asked to pay her between R1 000 and R4 000 for a house instead of waiting up to three years to receive it. Matinisi was found to have pocketed R16 500 from the eight people she defrauded.
“(Fire victims) were supposed to be in the houses and others who paid to be there did not belong there. Sixteen families’ lives have been turned upside down for seven years,” he said.
Chabilall said Matinisi had a number of community-based qualifications which she could have used to help the community.
“The impression the court gets is that you will be willing to cut a poor man’s neck for your bank balance. This country needs people who will stand by the poor and downtrodden and help them. Not stand on the heads of the poor and find themselves in Sandton and Constantia,” said Chabilall.
An emotionless Matinisi stared at Chabilall after sentencing and refused to respond when he asked whether she understood the sentence.
Community members sang and danced outside court, happy that Matinisi would be incarcerated for her deeds. However, they said the sentence imposed was too light.”That sentence is too little. She caused confusion and anger in the community,” Yunus Patiwe said.
jade.witten@inl.co.za - Cape Argus