Icasa chairman sentenced to 20 years in jail: report

The chairman of communications regulator Icasa’s powerful decision-making council has been sentenced to 20 years in jail for money laundering and fraud, it was reported on Friday.

According to Business Day, Rubben Mohlaloga’s lawyers on Thursday successfully applied for leave to appeal the sentence, which relates to a R6-million Land Bank scam.

Icasa spokesman Paseka Maleka said on Friday that he will be in a position to comment on the development later in the day.

Mohlaloga has continued to chair Icasa, despite the corruption charges hanging over his head.

He first joined the Icasa council in July 2013 and became acting chairman in June 2016. He was appointed as full-time chairman in December 2017, despite an outcry from opposition political parties.

A statement by the Hawks last year said Mohlaloga and three others had been found guilty of defrauding the Land Bank.

Cars, farm

The three transferred funds from the Agri-BEE fund, money intended for poor farmers, into a trust account and bought a farm for R2-million as well as an X5 BMW and a BMW 118i for Mohlaloga, who was an ANC MP and the chair of the portfolio committee on agriculture at the time.

Democratic Alliance MP Phumzile Van Damme, who is the party’s spokeswoman on communications, said last year that Icasa Act prohibits anyone who has been convicted of “theft, fraud, forgery or uttering a forged document, perjury, an offence in terms of the Corruption Act or any other offence involving dishonesty” from serving on regulator’s decision-making council. — (c) 2019 NewsCentral Media