Cape Town. 120312. 21 Sibelia street, Delft. Picture Courtney Africa Cape Town. 120312. 21 Sibelia street, Delft. Picture Courtney Africa
Leila Samodien
Justice Writer
A DOMESTIC worker is alleged to have stolen R1 million hidden in her boss’s kist – using the money to buy a house and a car.
Linda Mabhengu was charged with theft after allegedly helping herself to her Plattekloof employer’s clandestine stash of cash.
The Asset Forfeiture Unit (AFU) has now attached her house and car after securing a Western Cape High Court order, but does not know her whereabouts and needs to find her in order to serve her with the papers.
Mabhengu allegedly stole the cash, stored in her boss Harold Manus’s large chest, during the six years she worked for him as a domestic worker. She was paid R2 500 a month.
While Manus claims she stole R1m from him, Mabhengu has only been charged with the theft of R150 000.
The allegations came to light when a man – who said he was her husband – called Manus on May 20, 2010 and told him she had been stealing money from Manus.
According to an affidavit by Robertha Ruiters, a financial investigator for the AFU, the caller told Manus he had been benefiting from the stolen money and that he had personally counted it.
The man had told Manus that he knew about cash kept in envelopes inside his kist and that money was also stored in the television set.
Ruiters said in her affidavit that Manus and his wife were the only ones who knew what was inside the kist.
“The caller then informed Manus that he would give him full disclosure about how the money was spent and requested to meet him the following day.”
The man phoned again the next day and Manus asked him how he got his information.
“The caller said he helped his wife to count the money and (Mabhengu) bought a car and a house with the money.”
Ruiters said that the caller promised to call Manus for a third time the following day, which he did; however, this time, he demanded R5 000 in return for the information.
In the meantime, Mabhengu had failed to turn up for work. When Manus’s wife called her to ask where she was, an unnamed woman had answered the phone saying that Mabhengu’s brother had been in a serious accident and that she could not come to work.
On May 25, 2010, Manus had gone to Parow police station with Mabhengu in tow and laid a criminal complaint against her. In a statement to the Parow police, Mabhengu had admitted that she was guilty and that she had stolen R150 000.
She had used the money to buy a house in Delft for R85 000 and renovated it, as well as to purchase a Fiat Uno for R19 000.
Mabhengu’s husband, Mandlenkosi, also made a statement to police saying she had bought a house, an expensive kitchen cupboard, tiled the inside of the house and had the front covered with facebrick. This had been “suspicious” because he was a security guard and they hadn’t earned a lot of money.
According to a statement by Mandlenkosi, he only come to know of the theft when he visited her in the police’s holding cells and she told him about it.
leila.samodien@inl.co.za