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Fraud charges against gospel singer Dr Tumi withdrawn
The charges of fraud against gospel singer Dr Tumi and his wife were on Thursday struck off the roll. Dr Tumi, real name Tumisang Makweya and his wife Kgaogela Makweya stood accused of defrauding the National Lotteries Commission of more than R1.5m.
The star took to Instagram to share a press release that details the judgement from the courts.
“Morning fam. The beauty of the truth is that it can’t be changed. Today we were exonerated of any wrongdoing!!” reads the caption of the post.
According to the statement shared on the social media platform, the Specialised Commercial Crimes Unit dropped all charges against him and his wife, Kgaogelo Makweya.
“Renowned songwriter and gospel artist Tumisang Makweya “Dr Tumi” walked out of Palm Ridge Commercial Crime Court this morning a free man after the Specialised Commercial Crimes Unit dropped all charges against him and his wife Kgaogelo Makweya. For the past months, the duo stood accused of defrauding the National Lotteries Commission of more than R1.5 million, but after representations lead by Mr O Thovhakale of Thovhakale Attorneys to the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) the prosecutors decided that Dr Tumi and his wife had no case to answer to,” read the statement.
“In their report, the NPA exonerated Dr Tumi and Kgaogelo Makweya. They indicated that after they had thoroughly considered the representaions taking into account the contents of the case docket, the prosecutor’s report in response to the representations as well as the facts and circumstances relevant to the case the conclusion is that the charges be unconditionally withdrawn against Dr Tumi and his wife.”
The ‘Wafika’ hitmaker says he is thankful for the support he received while the case was still under investigation.
“Due to the matter having been sub judice, we couldn’t comment on it. From the onset, we maintained our innocence because we did nothing wrong. Handing ourselves over to the authorities was not an admission of guilt, but was out of respect for law enforcement agencies and to allow justice to take its course. This morning we are vindicted, justice has been served, we have no case to answer to. We are thankful for the support and love from our family, friends, colleagues and the public at this time,” he said.
The award-winning gospel artist said he will be resuming work.
“We are turning back to life and pursuing our passions and look forward to putting this episode behind us. God bless you all,” he said.
In Aprile, The Hawks’ Serious Commercial Crime Investigation team in Johannesburg arrested the couple aged 36 and 39 for approximately R1.5 million fraud allegations. It was reported that the suspects, Dr Tumi and his wife were listed as committee members at a non-profit organisation, allegedly submitted altered grant application documents to the National Lotteries Board for approval of funds on projects in 2018.
Further investigation revealed that the couple together with their co-accused Chistopher Tshivule (46) and Thomas Ndadza (48) allegedly altered information on the documents submitted to the National Lotteries in September 2018 which resulted in the amount of over R1.5 million being transferred into a private bank account.
The couple allegedly benefitted approximately R760 000 from the funds.
