Port Elizabeth - The case against convicted fraudster Portia Sizani was again postponed in the Port Elizabeth Commercial Crimes Court on Tuesday.
This after her lawyers indicated that they would make an application to the Port Elizabeth High Court for the matter to be taken on special review.
In March, Sizani, wife of South Africa’s ambassador to Germany and former African National Congress Chief Whip Stone Sizani, was found guilty of 15 counts of fraud and nine counts of money laundering.
Sizani’s sentencing was previously delayed after her defence team brought an application for a special review which was subsequently dismissed by Magistrate Mputumi Mpofu.
Her lawyers will now make the application for special review at the Port Elizabeth High Court.
Sizani defrauded the Eastern Cape education department out of more than R1.2 million by processing several fraudulent applications for Grade R teaching posts.
Sizani was the Early Childhood Development (ECD) district co-ordinator at the time she appointed “ghost teachers” and pocketed their pay during 2009 and 2010.
The ECD programme provided for the appointment of Grade R teachers at Eastern Cape schools.
Sizani was arrested in December 2012 and the trial was delayed for more than a year due to her alleged ill health. When the trial eventually kicked off more delays saw the case drag on for years.
Sizani started working for the department as a teacher in East London in 1991 and slowly worked her way up the ranks. Her husband was the former education MEC and resigned from that position in 2002.
The case was postponed until March 17.