former Eskom Senior Manager’ France Hlakudi .
Image via Whatsapp: Sindisiwe Twala
Former Eskom executive’s R30 million tax fraud case postponed
France Hlakudi has been charged with fraud and Contravention of the Tax Administration Act in relation to his personal tax affairs and that of his companies
former Eskom Senior Manager’ France Hlakudi .
Image via Whatsapp: Sindisiwe Twala
The case against former Eskom Senior Manager France Hlakudi has been postponed to November 10 2020.
Hlakudi appeared before the Pretoria Regional Court on Tuesday, 25 August 2020.
He has been charged with fraud and Contravention of the Tax Administration Act in relation to his personal tax affairs and that of his companies, Hlakudi Translation and Interpretation cc, Coxinel Chicken (Pty)Ltd and Bon Services Telcom cc.
Hlakudi is accused of failing to declare or pay funds to the South African Revenue Service (Sars) between 2015 and 2018.
“The charge sheet explicitly details how several contractors and or subcontractors to Eskom paid over money to Hlakudi’s companies”, said The National Prosecuting Authority’s (NPA) Investigating Directorate spokesperson Sindisiwe Twala.
The matter was postponed to allow his legal team to study the docket.
‘’This is one of the build-up cases to the many legs of corruption at Eskom that we plan to bring before the courts during our tenure‘’, said Head of the Investigating Directorate Advocate Hermione Cronje.
R745 million Eskom Kusile Power station fraud
However, Hlakudi’s legal troubles are far from over as he is also the accused in a R745 Million-rand corruption case linked to his tenure at the power utility.
He is said to have received millions from subcontractors who had done work with the utility, during the time when he was Eskom’s Kusile power station Senior Manager for Capital Contracts, before his resignation on the 13 November 2017.
Other accused in the case are former Eskom senior executive Abram Masango, Tubular Construction CEO Tony Trindade and company former chair Mike Lomas.
Cronje said one of their main priorities was also recovering the money that was stolen.
“We are going to recoup lost state funds, through working with Sars were personal income tax was not paid. Or taking people to court on fraud charges, irrespective of the mode used, we as the institution tasked with criminally charging people for abuse of the state purse, will do so,”
The Hawks pounced on the men in Gauteng, Limpopo and Mpumalanga back in December 2019.
“Investigations began when suspicions were raised into the construction of two large projects at Medupi and Kusile power stations. This revealed that there was apparent gross manipulation of contractual agreements between contractors, Eskom employees and third parties at Kusile power station”, said Hawks spokesperson Hangwani Mulaudzi.
