Hawks freeze R72 million in assets: KZN among top crime hotspots

Durban — In a bid to ensure that crime does not pay, the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation (DPCI) commonly known as the Hawks, facilitated 75 freezing and forfeiture orders amounting to over R72 million.

This was revealed by the National Head of the DPCI Lieutenant General (Dr/Adv) Godfrey Lebeya during a media briefing on Sunday, where he outlined the progress and took stock of milestones achieved during the second quarter of the financial year 2024/2025.

Lebeya said in a significant step to combat financial crime, R8.2 million had also been deposited into the Criminal Assets Recovery Account (CARA).

According to Lebeya, a total number of 818 suspects, 800 natural persons and 18 juristic persons, were secured before the various courts in the country.

Speaking about Serious Commercial Crime, Lebeya cited a fraud and money laundering conviction against three accused.

In March 2016, Duran Thavarayan, 40, who was a treasury supervisor at Massmart, was to pay all companies that were doing business with Massmart. The accused instead colluded with his friends, Yuvesh Pillay (41) and Selvan Naicker (53) and falsified invoices, which were presented to Massmart.

“It was established that the money was not paid into the accounts of the companies that were supplying Massmart. Instead, the money was paid into the accounts of the accused’s friends. As a result, the company suffered a loss of R2 418 500-00,” he said.

The Durban Specialised Commercial Crimes Court convicted Pillay and Naicker on 68 counts of money laundering. The matter is remanded to November 11 2024 for sentencing.

In another matter, between July 2015 and October 2016, Sivalingam Naidoo, 51, was employed as a property administrator by the owner of Phoenix Cash and Carry. His duties were to handle all administration in respect to rentals for the corporation. Naidoo transferred R1.15 million into his personal account.

This transaction alerted the employer, who then began to question his tenants about rent payments. The owner then discovered that Naidoo had defrauded the company a total amount of R5.87 million.

In 2017, Naidoo was arrested and appeared in court several times. On 17 July 2024, the Durban Specialised Commercial Crimes Court convicted him on 346 counts of fraud and money laundering. He was sentenced to 9 year’s imprisonment.

In another case, policemen were arrested for allegedly attempting to extort R100,000 from a Phoenix businessman. They are currently out on R7 000 bail each after appearing in the Durban Magistrates’ Court last month.

The case of an Uruguayan, Dr Gaston Savoi, 71, wherein he entered into a contract of water purification with the KwaZulu-Natal Department of Health in 2006, also made it to the Hawks stats.

On September 05, 2024, Savoi was convicted of corruption and fraud by the KwaZulu-Natal High Court in Pietermaritzburg after plea and sentence agreement in terms of section 105A of the Criminal Procedure Act 51 of 1977.

He was sentenced to 10 years’ imprisonment or R 5 million fine and a further suspended 10 years. A confiscation order was issued in favour of the state in the amount of R 60 million. He was also ordered to pay R 15 million towards the cost of the curatorship.

“May we recall that Dumisani Sipho Derrick Shabalala, the former Head of Treasury in KwaZulu-Natal was convicted and sentenced to 15 years imprisonment in 2022 for corruption, contravention of the Public Finance Management Act (PFMA), money laundering by receiving gratification in an amount of R1.5 million in respect of a contract that was initially signed at R22 million and subsequently increased to R50.1 million.”

Also shocking was the number of police officers killed in the last three months.

Between July and September 2024, the country saw 17 police officials tragically murdered, with 13 of those fatalities occurring while they were off duty.

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