A former Western Cape staff member of oil company Engen Petroleum was jailed for 10 years on Tuesday.

Single mother Nomvuzo Mnyazi, 35, was sentenced in the Bellville Specialised ourt after being convicted on 88 counts of fraud, involving R1.9 million.

Passing sentence, Magistrate Amrith Chabillal said it was heartening to hear of a "zero-tolerance" policy towards crime actually being applied by the company.

He referred to the testimony of Engen's Head of Forensics, Andrew Longo, who said the company was more concerned about the severe punishment of crime, than recovering stolen money.

Mnyazi had devised a scheme with her friend, Sindiswa Andrew, at the time a secretary at Portnet, to fraudulently secure 88 Engen payments totalling R1.982 million to Andrew.

This had been for services supposedly rendered by manipulating Engen's accounting system.

Prosecutor Derrik Vogel said Andrew was in March last year sentenced to three year's house arrest, in plea-bargain proceedings.

According to Longo, the magistrate said, Mnyazi had been "exceptionally bright" in the senior posts she held at Engen, and had had a promising future with the company.

Instead of channeling her intelligence in a positive manner, she used it to embezzle the company over a period of three years, Chabillal said.

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