uMkhonto weSizwe Party (MK Party) chief whip Mmabatho Mokoena-Zondi has been released on R30 000 bail after appearing in the Cape Magistrate’s Court on charges of fraud on Thursday.
The case has been transferred to the Bellville Specialised Commercial Crimes Court where she is expected to appear on 18 June.
Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation spokesperson Warrant Officer Zinzi Hani said it was alleged that between August 2024 and December 2024, the suspect head-hunted and recruited four individuals as researchers for the MK Party. During their employment, she allegedly demanded payments from them under the pretext that the money was needed for the party president’s legal costs.
Hani said the victims were forced to pay between 50% and 60% of their salaries.
“In total, the suspect defrauded the members of approximately R233 317.99.”
In October last year, the Mail & Guardian reported that the party’s internal structures had found Mokoena-Zondi guilty of extorting 60% of the salaries of at least three of the party’s parliamentary employees.
Mokoena-Zondi allegedly demanded money from the employees and threatened to fire them if they did not pay it into her bank account or hand over cash.
Payments were allegedly made in August, September and October 2024.
Mokoena has denied the claims.
The party’s national disciplinary committee prepared a report and sent it to then-secretary-general Floyd Shivambu and the disciplinary committee chairperson.
Despite the panel set up for Mokoena’s disciplinary hearing finding her guilty and recommending she be fired, the party has not done so.
According to an internal document in the Mail & Guardian’s possession, a female employee paid Mokoena R16 500 on 15 August 2024.
She paid R20 000 on 14 September and R25 000 on 30 September 2024. She later paid a further R2 000 into Mokoena-Zondi’s account.
In August 2024, Mokoena-Zondi allegedly threatened a male employee, whose name the M&G is also withholding, that if he did not pay 60% of his salary, he would be fired from his job.
He later paid her R30 000 in cash.
In another incident involving a female staff member, Mokoena-Zondi allegedly demanded 60% of the employee’s salary.
According to the report, she did not dispute either the allegations or the evidence against her. She said she had not known that she needed a lawyer to present her case.
The first hearing was scheduled for 26 and 27 November 2024 in Cape Town but Mokoena-Zondi said she could not attend because she was getting married.
The hearing was postponed until 14 to 16 January 2025 in Durban but on the last day of the hearing, she presented a medical certificate, which the panel did not accept.
An MK Party source told the M&G that Mokoena-Zondi had been extorting money from staff since she took office.
“She would employ people who were supposed to earn high salaries. She claimed that Ubaba [party leader Jacob Zuma] wanted the money but she was just stealing in his name.”
The source said they had expected Mokoena’s membership to be terminated but her case had “disappeared into thin air”.
“We are all shocked that she is still in parliament and living large.”Speaking to the M&G, Mokoena-Zondi dismissed the allegations as rumours and lies, adding: “There was actually a hearing but everything was cleared. I wanted the hearing to go ahead so that I could be cleared. Why would they leak something that happened over a year ago?”
In October, when the ‘M&G’ first released the story that Mmabatho Mokoena-Zondi had been allegedly soliciting 50% to 60% of staff salaries, claiming it was meant for Zuma, she described the allegations as ‘rumours and lies’
