Inside Politics Reporter
Former ANC Member of Parliament and chairperson of the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA), Manyaba Rubben Mohlaloga, was ordered to report to the Pretoria Specialised Commercial Crimes Court on Wednesday to begin serving a 20-year prison sentence for fraud and money laundering.
The order stems from a corruption case investigated by the Hawks’ Serious Corruption Investigation Unit, first registered in Brooklyn in October 2012.
Investigators found that in February 2008, while Mohlaloga chaired Parliament’s Portfolio Committee on Agriculture and Land Affairs, a grant of R6 million was irregularly paid to an entity on the verbal instruction of the then CEO of the Land Bank, Philemon Mohlahlane, without following required approval procedures.
The Land Bank, which managed the AgriBEE Fund valued at R100 million to support the empowerment of previously disadvantaged farmers, alerted authorities to the irregular payment. Mohlaloga was later found to have personally benefitted from the illicit transaction.
He was convicted in 2019 on one count of fraud and one count of money laundering, receiving 15 years’ imprisonment on each count, with 10 years of the money-laundering term ordered to run concurrently for an effective 20-year sentence.
Following his conviction, the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Communications removed him from his post as ICASA chairperson.
Mohlaloga’s subsequent appeals to the Pretoria High Court and the Supreme Court of Appeal were unsuccessful.
On August 8 this year, the SCA ordered that he begin serving his sentence. His urgent bid to extend bail pending an intended appeal to the Constitutional Court was dismissed by the Pretoria High Court in September, which ordered him to surrender for incarceration.
Lieutenant General Patrick Mbotho, Acting National Head of the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation, praised the outcome. “This case is a clear demonstration that the Hawks and the justice system remain resolute in bringing those who abuse positions of trust and authority to justice,” he said.
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