Tumisang Makweya, or Dr Tumi, as he is widely renowned, and his wife Kgaogelo are out on a cumulative R10 000 bail.
Dr Tumi: A righteous man meddled in gluttonous acts
The couple, who’ve garnered celebrity as an influential duo in the gospel music industry, has been hit with fraud charges, according to Hawks spokesperson Captain Ndivhuwo Mulamu.
On Tuesday, the pair, along with co-accused Christopher Tshivule and Thomas Ndadza, appeared briefly at the Palm Ridge Specialised Commercial Crimes Court.
It’s alleged that Dr Tumi and his cohorts — his wife very much involved — “allegedly altered information on the documents submitted to the National Lotteries in September 2018 that resulted in the amount of over R1.5 million being transferred into a private bank account.”
According to existing forensic evidence, Dr Tumi and his wife, both members of a non-profit organisation, used their status in the committee to allegedly defraud the National Lotteries Commission of millions in a scam that involved altered financial and administrative documents.
“They allegedly submitted altered grant application documents to the National Lotteries Board for approval of funds on projects in 2018,” Capt. Mulamu revealed in a statement.
Was the National Lotteries Commission complicit in the alleged scam?
At this stage, it has not been stated if the R1.5 million was channelled into the gospel-star-slash-medical-doctor’s personal bank account.
Moreover, no indication — at least, not yet — has been brought forward on the NLC’s complicity in the alleged scam. How a lump sum of money earmarked for an NPO project was processed from the Lotteries’ treasury into a personal bank account remains a question that has yet to yield a logical explanation.
Alas, Hawks investigators believe from that total, the couple received a R760 000 cut, while the rest, it’s assumed, was allegedly split between Tshivule and Ndzadza.
When is the next court appearance?
Dr Tumi, his wife, Tshivule and Ndzadza are all out on bail. Their fraud case has been rescheduled for Friday 7 May 2021.
