Pretoria - The Pretoria Specialised Commercial Crimes Court has sentenced former State Security Agency (SSA) finance clerk Kgaogelo Bopape, 53, to six years direct imprisonment for theft of R170 000.
North Gauteng regional spokesperson for the Directorate of Public Prosecutions, Lumka Mahanjana, on Monday said National Prosecuting Authority had welcomed the sentence.
“The NPA welcomes the sentence handed down by the Pretoria Specialised Commercial Crimes Court of six years direct imprisonment to Kgaogelo Bopape, a former State Security Agency employee for theft of R170 000,” said.
“The NPA hopes that this sentence will send a strong message that such crimes of theft, corruption and fraud will not be tolerated.”
Earlier, IOL reported that Bopape’s responsibilities while working for the State Security Agency involved making funds available to members of the agency for their different operations.
“On April 7, 2020, Bopape withdrew R500 000 under the false pretence that she would make the funds available to the members of the SSA operations. She then kept the funds in a lockable safe in her office and later took R170 000 and used it for her benefit,” Mahanjana said in February.
She said when the finance manager of the division was doing a spot check audit, he discovered that there was an amount of R500 000 missing from the safe.
“After internal investigations were done, an opened packet containing R330 000 was found inside Bopape’s office, and upon interrogation, she eventually admitted to stealing R170 000,” said Mahanjana.
The matter was reported to the police, and Bopape was arrested on January 26, 2021.
In court, Bopape pleaded guilty to a charge of theft and handed in her guilty plea statement.
IOL