Africa-Press – South-Africa. A former State Security Agency (SSA) finance clerk has been sentenced to six years in prison for stealing R170 000 from the agency.
On Monday, Magistrate Ignatius du Preez sentenced Kgaogelo Bopape, 53, in the Pretoria Specialised Commercial Crimes Court.
Bopape was employed in the domestic currency division of the SSA at the time that she stole the money.
She had withdrawn R500 000 under false pretences and claimed the funds would be made available to the members of the SSA operations, but stole R170 000 of it.
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National Prosecuting Authority’s (NPA) Lumka Mahanjana said Bopape had kept the money in a lockable safe in her office.
The SSA financial manager of the division later discovered that about R500 000 was missing, Bopape had withdrawn the money on 7 April 2020.
An amount of R330 000 was found inside Bopape’s office.
Upon interrogation, she eventually admitted to stealing R170 000. The matter was then reported to the police.
Bopape was arrested on 26 January and pleaded guilty to a charge of theft on 17 February.
Mahanjana welcomed the sentence.
“The NPA hopes the sentence would send a strong message that such crimes of theft, corruption and fraud will not be tolerated.”
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