Shangaan disco king Penny Penny's manager Lerato Manaka and her businessman husband Thabang Manaka have been sentenced to eight and six years in prison respectively after they were found guilty of fraud and money laundering in the Johannesburg Specialised Commercial Crime Court.

Manaka and her husband started serving their time at the Johannesburg Prison, popularly known as Sun City, on November 1.

The brand manager from Roodepoort, west of Johannesburg, hogged headlines this year after she approached DStv to stop the airing of Penny Penny's popular reality show Papa Penny Ahee on Mzansi magic.

She claimed the musician owed her R200000 after she worked with him to build his brand. She also claimed that she made the reality show happen. Manaka also managed former IdolsSA Season 9's top three finalist Sonke Mazibuko through her company Leraman Media.

The court last month found Manaka guilty of fraud and her husband guilty of money laundering.

According to the court papers seen by Sunday World, Manaka paid undisclosed millions of rands from Danone SA's bank account to her husband's company, Thabnaka Investments, when she was project manager at Danone in 2011.

The affidavit also stated that Manaka created fake service invoices pretending that her husband's company had rendered services to Danone.

Later, Danone's auditors picked up that the services on the invoice were never rendered from the said company.

Magistrate Brian Nemavhidi convicted Manaka on six counts of fraud and sentenced her to 12 years imprisonment, of which four were suspended for five years. Her husband was convicted on six counts of money laundering and sentenced to eight years imprisonment, of which two were suspended.

Correctional services spokesman in Gauteng Ofentse Morwane said: "The department can confirm that offender Lerato Manaka is currently detained at the Johannesburg Female Correctional Centre."

Penny Penny declined to comment.