The East London based Serious Commercial Crimes Investigation of the Hawks in corporation with South African Revenue Service (SARS) and National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) ensured Alicia Nontsapho Mnqwazi (65), who is the sole director of Mwendane Skills Providers CC, appeared before East London Magistrates’ Court on 24 April 2024, for allegations of fraud. Mnqwazi was arrested by the team of the Hawks on 24 April 2024.
It is alleged that during the period between 2019 and 2021, Mnqwazi intentionally submitted fraudulent Value Added Tax (VAT) 201 returns to SARS on behalf of her business entity. Subsequent to that, SARS conducted its internal assessment and picked up discrepancies in the returns submitted for the financial years in question. The reports indicated that the alleged returns were repudiated by SARS. The matter was reported to the Hawks for intensive investigation.
The investigation revealed that indeed the suspect had intentionally submitted false vat returns to defraud SARS, where the potential prejudice of an amount of over R5.8 million was nearly suffered in refund to her business entity.
Mnqwazi was eventually arrested by the investigating team of the Hawks on 24 April 2024 and she made her first court appearance before East London Magistrates’ court on the same day where she was released on R10 000 bail.
The matter was then remanded to 28 May 2024 for it to be transferred to Regional court .The arrest of the other suspect is imminent.
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