Award-winning gospel singer and medical doctor Tumisang Makweya whose popularly known as Dr. Tumi and his wife Kgaohelo Makweya have been charged with fraud, this after the pair handed themselves over to the Hawks’office in Johannesburg on Tuesday.
According to the Hawks, They have been released on a bail of R3000 each. Dr. Tumi and his wife were allegedly listed as committee members at a non-profit organisation when the alleged fraud occurred.
The Hawks stated that the couple along with the other two suspects allegedly submitted altered grand application documents to the National Lotteries Board for approval of funds on projects back in 2018. Dr. Tumi and his wife allegedly benefited an estimated amount of R760 000 from the funds.
"Further investigation revealed that the couple together with their co-accused who has since been released on R5 000 bail each, Christopher Tshivule (46) and Thomas Ndadza (48) allegedly altered information on the documents submitted to the National Lotteries in September 2018 which resulted to the amount of over R1.5 million being transferred into a private bank account. The couple allegedly benefitted approximately R760 000 from the funds. They handed themselves in at the Johannesburg office escorted by their attorney and were subsequently charged for fraud,” the hawks' statement read.
The case has been postponed to next month.
"They appeared in the Palm Ridge Specialised Commercial Crimes Court today and were granted bail of R3000 each. The case was postponed to 07 May 2021 for docket disclosure.”
Dr. Tumi’s followers are adamant that he is innocent. He has been trending on Twitter since the news broke on the internet. @MsNtfulini tweeted: “Please don’t compare Bushiri to our national Dr. Tumi is innocent and I’m waiting for him to confirm if it’s true. I’m ready to sing ‘I’m nothing without you’ outside court.”
@Kgomo389: “Dr. Tumi is innocent until proven guilty by a court of law. I’m sick and tired of Kangaroo courts finding people guilty without evidence, let the court decide on the matter”
Here are other reactions from Twitter users.
We love you too Dr Tumi❤ it is true that you and your wife were arrested for R1.5 million fraud and released on bail today? https://t.co/aGTVsPbdta
In SA we have a problem of blind following. Ppl already say Dr Tumi didnt do it..as if u sleep in his house. Thats y ppl sing outside courts when Zuma,Makgashule,zandile appear,to support corruption. Thats why anc is looting this country bcoz u follow them blindly. Tumi must ans. pic.twitter.com/gJOB3j2X2j
I can't believe some of you are defending alleged crime done by Dr Tumi just because he's your favourite gospel singer so you believe he can't commit crime lmao wtf is wrong with some of you South Africans,no wonder politicians steal from you & y'all defend their thievery asses.
In February this year, Dr. Tumi also topped the trends on Twitter after it was reported that he got R500 000 from the Gauteng department of sports, arts, culture, and recreation for his 2 hours virtual prayer session titled Lockdown worship.
We called it lockdown worship. It was a TV production and we streamed part of it. TV productions take long and there were others with me. A further R150,000 was paid for the performers and R33,000 for pre-production costs. Other amounts were R29,000 for marketing, R52,000 on management costs, and R64,000 in VAT. There are a lot of lockdown TV shows going around and I can tell you they are costly," Dr. Tumi told Sunday Times.
