A former SABC employee cried bitterly when the Johannesburg Regional Court found her guilty on Tuesday of defrauding the public broadcaster of almost R1-million.
Magistrate Steff Bezuidenhout remanded Sheila Dlikilili, a former television producer at the SABC, in custody until September 30 when the court will hear argument on mitigation and possibly sentence her.
Dlikilili was convicted on 36 counts of fraud.
During 1993 and 1994 she, with the assistance of others, ”recklessly squandered the SABC’s money”, the court heard.
The court noted that, because of numerous changes of prosecutors and defence lawyers, the trial had taken six years.
Bezuidenhout said an investigation was launched after an SABC employee overheard a conversation in a bank and reported it to management.
Dlikilili was then arrested and charged. Many of the witnesses who were involved in the fraud were told by the court that if all questions were satisfactorily answered, they would be granted indemnity from prosecution at the end of the trial.
It appeared that Dlikilili would authorise payments to production houses run by longtime friends and by her brother. There were no master tapes to substantiate the invoices, and some of the footage viewed by the court ”was so amateurish that it appears as if it was made with a home video camera,” the magistrate said.
One of those who testified against Dlikilili was her former lover Harold Legodi Dlikilili, a former soccer player.
The other charges related to fake travel and expenditure claims — two for Dlikilili and the rest for other people.
The court found on Tuesday that the invoices were similar to a blank invoice book found in her office. – Sapa