INLSA
Mpisane
Two days in April have been reserved for the trial of Durban businesswoman Shauwn Mpisane, who is accused of tax fraud involving R2.4 million.
However, both the trial magistrate, Sharon Marks, and Mpisane’s advocate, Jimmy Howse, expressed doubt yesterday that the trial would go ahead then.
At issue, Howse said, was a statement taken from an SA Revenue Services (Sars) employee, which had not been handed over to the defence.
Prosecutor Meera Naidu said the statement had only been taken last week “by another investigations branch looking at another prosecution”.
She said, however, that it was “part of this case as well” and she would hand it over this week. Later, outside court, Naidu and an investigating officer were heard grilling Mpisane and her team as to how they knew about the statement.
During the brief hearing, Howse said that Mpisane was hiring a senior advocate from Pretoria to handle the trial and the April 25 and 26 trial dates were conditional on his availability.
Adjourned
The case was adjourned until the end of February to confirm this.
Mpisane, who owns Zikhulise Cleaning, Maintenance and Transport CC, is accused of submitting false invoices to reclaim VAT. Her former bookkeeper has already pleaded guilty to similar charges and a printer, who is alleged to have generated the false invoices for submission to Sars, has been charged with forgery and contravention of tax laws.
Mpisane is also charged with contraventions of the Close Corporations Act for managing a business in spite of being disqualified because she has a previous conviction for tax fraud.
The Mercury reported last week that Mpisane had taken the eThekwini municipality to court, demanding reinstatement of a R176m housing contract. She claims in court papers that she was not informed of the reason for the cancellation of the contract, but believes it is because of this previous conviction. She claims she is “lawfully” running her company.
The municipality is opposing the application and will file its papers later this week.
