A bank manager, a church pastor and a pseudo businessman were sentenced on Monday in a racketeering case involving the trafficking of 27 people - from Beaufort West to Graaff-Reinet and then to Middelburg - to be used as pawns in a credit card fraud scam.
The National Prosecuting Authority in the Eastern Cape said that when a whistleblower alerted the bank, a pastor in the syndicate allegedly approached a traditional healer and tried to commission a hit on the investigating officer and some of the witnesses.
On Tuesday, Pakistani national Muhammad Afzal Yaseen and pastor Khaya Honeman Nocanda were sentenced to 11 years imprisonment each, and their accomplice - bank manager Mandisa Mirriam Ndletyana - was sentenced to five years for their respective roles in scamming R1 million from the bank.