Tefo Tefo
THE High Court will today set a date of hearing for the case in which the Director of Jamale Holdings, Letsatsi Mabona, stands accused of fraud and forgery.
Jamale Holdings is debt collection company which is contracted by the National Manpower Development Secretariat (NMDS) which administers student bursaries on behalf of the government.
Mabona is charged with producing fraudulent documents to the NMDS between 2011 and 2012 in order to win a tender for his company to collect debts from NMDS sponsees.
He is charged alongside his company as first and second accused respectively.
He faces two counts of fraud and one count of forgery.
In the first count of fraud, Mabona is accused of presenting false information to the NMDS that one Mr Christopher Beans was part of the company so that the NMDS could award a debt collection tender to his company.
“Between 2011 and 2012…in Maseru, the accused did unlawfully and deliberately make to the NMDS, a false representation at the time of tendering for the collection of debts from NMDS sponsees, that Christopher Beans, a specialist in debt collection, was part of and/or an employee of Jamale Holdings,” part of the charge sheet states.
The prosecution alleges Mabona gave the false information so that NMDS could “act upon the representation to its detriment”.
In the second count of fraud he is accused of submitting to NMDS a fraudulent tax clearance certificate after realising that a tax clearance certificate from the Lesotho Revenue Authority (LRA) was one of the requirements to qualify for the award of a tender for debt collection on behalf of NMDS.
The forgery charge relates to the forged signature of Christopher Beans affixed on the letter submitted to NMDS for the tender bid.
“Between 2011 and 2012, (the exact date unknown to the prosecutor)… the said accused did unlawfully and intentionally make a document purporting to be what it was not; a letter purporting to be signed by Christopher Beans for the tendering of the collection of debts for NMDS sponsees.”
Mabona first appeared before the Magistrates’ Court on 11 November 2015 and Senior Resident Magistrate, Peter Murenzi, released him on bail. He paid M10 000 as bail deposit and M750 000 as surety.
