Leave to appeal a fraud conviction and a four-year prison sentence by Sandile Tsopo, husband of Free State education MEC Ouma Tsopo, was denied on Thursday by the Bloemfontein regional court.
Regional magistrate M I Menong, however, extended Tsopo's bail pending the outcome of a petition to be filed at the high court.
Sandile Tsopo, his sister Martha Nombulelo Nqulo, and Nitja Daniel Makhathini were earlier found guilty of defrauding the Free State education department of more than R360 000 in regard to the
distribution of school books.
Ouma Tsopo was the MEC for health when the fraud incident occurred.
While Tsopo was sentenced to four-years imprisonment, Nqulo was sentenced to two years imprisonment, wholly suspended for five years. Makhathini was also sentenced to four-years imprisonment, of which two years were suspended for four years.
On Thursday, the court dismissed Nqulo's leave to appeal against her conviction.
Makhathini's leave to appeal against his conviction was dismissed. However his leave to appeal against his sentence was successful.
The case relates to the Free State education department putting out a R30-million tender for the delivery of school and text books over a three year period (2001 to 2004).
After all 37 entities who were successful in receiving tenders were investigated, about 26 were allegedly found to be fraudulent. - Sapa