Man in court for allegedly stealing over R1 million from primary school

File picture: Pexels

File picture: Pexels

Published Oct 28, 2024

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A man accused with an astounding 175 counts of fraud or theft for dipping his toes into a school’s coffers appeared at the Rustenburg Magistrate Court.

National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) North West Division communications officer, Sivenathi Gunya said the accused, Ofentse Solomon Molemane, willingly surrendered to the South African Police Service (SAPS) on Monday.

“During the proceedings, it was disclosed that Molemane was employed as an administrative assistant in the Department of Education in the Bojanala District Services at the Rustenburg area office, specifically Sunrise View Primary School,” Gunya said.

Molemane was assigned secretarial and office administrative duties.

Furthermore, he acted as a financial officer on the school governing body (SGB) and was one of the signatories to the school’s bank account, allowing him to undertake transactions purely for the schools benefit.

“Investigations revealed that another suspect, not yet arrested, had no legitimate association with the school and did not render any services entitled to payment from it. It was noted that the two became romantically involved.”

Molemane is suspected of transferring funds from the school’s bank account to his personal account between January 2019 and March 2020.

In March 2020, he also allegedly transferred six times from the school’s account to his girlfriend’s account (the second suspect).

The accused’s total transfers between 2019 and 2020 exceeded R1 million. “The state has asserted that both Molemane and the outstanding suspect shared a common purpose and acted together to facilitate the fraudulent activities. Efforts are ongoing to locate and arrest the outstanding suspect,” said Gunya.

The case was postponed to November 14, 2024.

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