Just News |
The Pretoria Regional Court on Wednesday postponed former Eskom senior manager, France Hlakudi’s, tax matter to 22 April 2021.
This is to allow the magistrate, Adriaan Bekker, to hand down judgement on the application brought by the defence for striking off of the fraud charges in the tax evasion matter.
Investigating Directorate Spokesperson Sindisiwe Twala said Hlakudi’s team argued that the fraud charges should not be applicable in this matter and should be struck off before the matter proceeds to trial.
“The Investigating Directorate (ID) argued that Hlakudi intentionally defrauded the South African Revenue Services by failing to disclose his true income, which amounts to an intent to defraud the state.”
Twala further said the fraud and contravention of the Tax Administration Act charges are 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. “This is for the funds received between 2015 and 2018. Hlakudi was Eskom Kusile Power Station senior manager for capital contracts.”
It is alleged that Hlakudi evaded tax amounting to R30 million.
Twala added that if found guilty, according to the Criminal Law Amendment Act 105 of 1997, a minimum sentence of 15 years is applicable for a first-time offender.
