A member of a syndicate accused of defrauding the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan Municipality of R19.7m was found guilty of fraud in the city's magistrate court on Friday.
Mduduzi Mkhize is one of eight people accused of installing a software programme on a municipal computer to record keystrokes, thereby gaining access to the municipality's main Standard Bank account.
Mkhize was also found guilty of contravening the Electronic Communications and Transaction Act.
Magistrate Tobie Gerber said the state was able to prove that Mkhize, who pleaded not guilty, was a key role player in the syndicate.
Gerber said testimonies by Mkhize's two accomplices, Sipho Msomi and Nokuthula Magubane, corroborated the state's evidence.
One piece of evidence presented by the state was video footage from the Port Elizabeth airport of the suspects boarding a flight to Johannesburg after the first transaction in 2009.
Msomi and Magubane pleaded guilty and are already serving a 15-year sentence.
Gerber also said the state proved that Mkhize, who is originally from Kwazulu Natal, was the one who initiated the syndicate and recruited members to help him.
Magubane said in her testimony that Mkhize told her about the syndicate's plans when she approached him to help her out as as she was going through financial problems.
She said Mkhize then told her about the syndicate and they travelled to Port Elizabeth from KZN where they met with Msomi, Lungisa Kosi and later the municipality's acting head, Kholeka Ngqondi,
Mkhize's case was remanded to the 16th of September for argument in mitigation and aggravation of sentence.
Meanwhile, the case against the other accused in the matter which include, Nqgondi, will continue on 24 November.
Two of the accused, Lungisa Kosi and Nonhlanhla Mazibuko, were also implicated in a Koukamma Municipality fraud case of R1.4m rand back in 2010 while the syndicate's IT specialist, Msomi, pleaded guilty to defrauding South African Social Security Agency ( SASSA) in 2011.
He was sentenced to 13 years of imprisonment of which five years were suspended on condition that he is not convicted of fraud.
Mkhize was also implicated in the same case.
