A former Eskom employee who worked in the power utility’s Nelspruit offices has been sentenced to an effective 10 years’ direct imprisonment for her role in a fraud that cost Eskom about R1.8 million.
Cinderella Thabisile Muropane was sentenced on Thursday in a Nelspruit court on 94 counts of fraud. The court imposed 10 years’ imprisonment on counts one to 16, and seven years each on counts 17 to 55 and counts 56 to 94. Because the sentences run concurrently, Muropane will serve an effective 10 years behind bars.
The 94 counts fall into three blocks: 16 counts that attracted the heaviest term, followed by two blocks of 39 counts each that attracted seven years. In practice, the court’s decision to run the sentences together means the longest term sets the time she will serve, and the other two do not add to it. Direct imprisonment means the term is to be served in prison rather than suspended. The published reports do not say when she may become eligible for parole, and that is a question the Department of Correctional Services would normally answer.
How the scheme worked
According to the Hawks’ Serious Commercial Crime Investigation unit in Middelburg, which investigated the case, Eskom had contracted Mandla Lines CC, a company owned by David Mthetwa, between April 2012 and March 2013. The company’s last legitimate work order was issued on 2 May 2012.
Despite that, the Hawks say, fraudulent invoices were generated in Mandla Lines CC’s name from Eskom’s Nelspruit offices. Those invoices led to payments being processed into the company’s bank account for work it had not performed. The loss to Eskom came to about R1.8 million.
The detail that matters most is the date. A work order that ended in May 2012 should have ended the billing too. According to the Hawks’ account, it did not.
The case at a glance
Accused: Cinderella Thabisile Muropane, a former Eskom employee in Nelspruit. Sentence: an effective 10 years’ direct imprisonment. Loss to Eskom: about R1.8 million. Company named: Mandla Lines CC, owned by David Mthetwa. Investigating unit: the Hawks’ Serious Commercial Crime Investigation unit in Middelburg.
“Public money is not a personal purse”
Mpumalanga Hawks head, Major General Nico Gerber, said: “Public money is not a personal purse, and positions of trust must never be turned into platforms for fraud.”
The statement draws a line between ordinary employment and the trust that comes with access to a payment process. Muropane worked inside Eskom’s Nelspruit offices, which is where, according to the Hawks, the invoices originated.
A long road to sentence
The contract period at the centre of the case ended in March 2013. Thursday’s sentence therefore came more than 13 years later. The published reports on the case do not explain the timeline of Muropane’s arrest, trial or conviction, so it is not clear what accounts for the gap.
What remains unanswered
None of the published reports on the sentencing say whether Mthetwa or Mandla Lines CC face any charges. Nor do they address whether Eskom will recover any of the R1.8 million, or whether Muropane intends to appeal her conviction or sentence. Readers will want answers to all three questions, and NeoScribe will update this report if the Hawks or prosecutors provide them.
Part of a wider pattern
The sentence comes as Eskom-related fraud cases continue to move through Mpumalanga’s courts. In August, the Middelburg Specialised Commercial Crimes Court convicted former Eskom buyer Nozipho Ntuli, three other individuals and three companies over a tender fraud that cost Eskom about R8.5 million. Sentencing in that matter is set for 19 October 2026, according to IOL.
Further afield, the Palm Ridge Commercial Crimes Court sentenced former Eskom financial controller Mosai Barnard Moraka and service provider Victor Vilosi Tshabalala to 20 years’ imprisonment each in March 2022. The pair were convicted of stealing R35 million through 53 invoices for services that were never rendered, according to The Citizen.
Measured against those cases, Muropane’s R1.8 million fraud is smaller in value. It has nonetheless ended in a decade-long direct prison term.
The red flag in plain sight
The facts reported in this case point to a simple warning sign: payments that continue after a contractor’s last legitimate work order. In this instance, according to the Hawks, those payments were prompted by invoices raised from within Eskom’s own offices.
For now, the sentence stands at an effective 10 years. How much of the R1.8 million Eskom sees again, and what happens to the company named in the Hawks’ account, are the next chapters in a case whose contract period ended more than a decade ago.
