Johannesburg - Stealing tithe money does not pay. A 43-year-old church woman, Memory Mutsika originally from Zimbabwe, was on Wednesday sentenced to three years for stealing R800 000 from the Seventh Day Adventist Church in Pretoria where she was a treasurer.
Mutsika appeared before the Pretoria Specialised Commercial Crimes Court, where she was sentenced to three years direct imprisonment for 128 counts of theft that occurred over a four-year period between 2012 and 2015. Mutsika was the church treasurer of the Pretoria City Seventh-Day Adventist Church.
Her churchly responsibilities included transferring tithes and offerings deposited in the church account to the Northern Conference of the Seventh-Day Adventist Church. During this period, Mutsika reportedly transferred more than R800 000 of the church money received from the tithes and offerings to her bank account, for her personal use.
NPA spokesperson Lumka Mahanjana said in court that Mutsika pleaded guilty to the charges. She requested that she be given a non-custodial sentence to pay the church back the money over five years. However, the state argued that Mutsika had previously indicated her willingness to pay back the money but consistently failed to deliver on her promises, which is why she was given a custodial sentence of three years.
"The magistrate agreed with the state and said Mutsika showed no remorse. She stopped stealing not because of her conscience but because she was caught. The church placed her in a position of trust, but she betrayed that trust.
"He further (the magistrate) said that he viewed Mutsika’s willingness to pay back the money, as a bargaining tool and as a ticket to keep her out of prison. Therefore, a sentence of imprisonment was appropriate, and criminal conduct has consequences," Mahanjana said.
The Star