Sully Motsweni, a former SABC sports executive who is accused of fraud for allegedly deceiving the corporation to pay for her three sons to stay at a Cape Town hotel during a work trip, said it was never her intention to make the broadcaster foot the bill.
Motsweni, who appeared at the Palm Ridge specialised commercial crime court in Ekurhuleni on Thursday, is accused of making the SABC suffer a R24,000 loss for her 2017 trip to the Two Oceans Marathon in Cape Town.
The state alleges that her two sons from Joburg, under the guise that they were athletes, were put in the same hotel she stayed in and that her third son, a student in Cape Town, joined them and was booked an extra room, at the cost of the SABC.
The corporation sponsored the marathon and had paid for all of Motsweni’s travelling costs.
Motsweni is charged with 11 counts of fraud. She allegedly took friends and family members on trips to SABC-sponsored events bettween 2014 and 2017 at the broadcaster's expense.
Motsweni took the stand for the first time on Thursday since her arrest in 2017. “I know it is company policy that when you travel with a member [from] outside the SABC, you had to pay either from your salary or credit card. This was not a family trip, and my family would not have benefited financially from this,” she said.
The state claims Motsweni made a misrepresentation and knew that her sons were not athletes and were not going to run or participate in the marathon, “and that the said persons were not and would not add value to the SABC brand”.
Motsweni told the court, regarding the Cape Town trip, that former SABC CFO Thabile Sylvia Dlamini, told her that the envelope containing her receipts for the trip went missing as she was compiling the 2016/17 financial year reports.
“The CFO asked me if I had copies of the [Cape Town] receipts ... because the envelope I produced went missing from her office. However, I told her that since I was suspended, I did not have access to my work emails,” Motsweni said.
“She proceeded to say that they will have to now take R18,000 or R24,000 from my salary, which would have been in three monthly instalments, or take it from my credit card. I then waited for them to deduct that money, but that did not happen. Instead, I was charged.”
Motsweni said her assistant let the travel agency know that her son, who was studying at the University of Cape Town, would be occupying the room originally booked for a colleague she was meant to travel with, but who couldn’t make it.
She said it was never her intention to use SABC money for her son, but he wanted to visit them and, whether the room was occupied or not, the hotel would still have charged the SABC for it. Therefore, she decided her son should join them.
“I know it is company policy that when you travel with a member [from] outside the SABC, you had to pay either from your salary or credit card. [But] this was not a family trip and my family would not have benefited financially from this,” she said.
The state is expected to cross examine Motsweni on Friday.
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Ex-SABC executive in court for abusing work trips with family
Image: Antonio Muchave
Sully Motsweni, a former SABC sports executive who is accused of fraud for allegedly deceiving the corporation to pay for her three sons to stay at a Cape Town hotel during a work trip, said it was never her intention to make the broadcaster foot the bill.
Motsweni, who appeared at the Palm Ridge specialised commercial crime court in Ekurhuleni on Thursday, is accused of making the SABC suffer a R24,000 loss for her 2017 trip to the Two Oceans Marathon in Cape Town.
The state alleges that her two sons from Joburg, under the guise that they were athletes, were put in the same hotel she stayed in and that her third son, a student in Cape Town, joined them and was booked an extra room, at the cost of the SABC.
The corporation sponsored the marathon and had paid for all of Motsweni’s travelling costs.
Motsweni is charged with 11 counts of fraud. She allegedly took friends and family members on trips to SABC-sponsored events bettween 2014 and 2017 at the broadcaster's expense.
Motsweni took the stand for the first time on Thursday since her arrest in 2017. “I know it is company policy that when you travel with a member [from] outside the SABC, you had to pay either from your salary or credit card. This was not a family trip, and my family would not have benefited financially from this,” she said.
The state claims Motsweni made a misrepresentation and knew that her sons were not athletes and were not going to run or participate in the marathon, “and that the said persons were not and would not add value to the SABC brand”.
Motsweni told the court, regarding the Cape Town trip, that former SABC CFO Thabile Sylvia Dlamini, told her that the envelope containing her receipts for the trip went missing as she was compiling the 2016/17 financial year reports.
“The CFO asked me if I had copies of the [Cape Town] receipts ... because the envelope I produced went missing from her office. However, I told her that since I was suspended, I did not have access to my work emails,” Motsweni said.
“She proceeded to say that they will have to now take R18,000 or R24,000 from my salary, which would have been in three monthly instalments, or take it from my credit card. I then waited for them to deduct that money, but that did not happen. Instead, I was charged.”
Motsweni said her assistant let the travel agency know that her son, who was studying at the University of Cape Town, would be occupying the room originally booked for a colleague she was meant to travel with, but who couldn’t make it.
She said it was never her intention to use SABC money for her son, but he wanted to visit them and, whether the room was occupied or not, the hotel would still have charged the SABC for it. Therefore, she decided her son should join them.
“I know it is company policy that when you travel with a member [from] outside the SABC, you had to pay either from your salary or credit card. [But] this was not a family trip and my family would not have benefited financially from this,” she said.
The state is expected to cross examine Motsweni on Friday.
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