How Isuzu was allegedly fleeced of R10.5m

For six years, millions of rand quietly flowed out of Isuzu Motors SA’s payroll system until employees questioned why their take-home pay did not match their payslips.

The alleged scheme culminated in the arrest of a payroll administrator accused of siphoning off more than R10.5m between January 1 2018 and August 22 2024.

Natasja Slabbert, 42, appeared in the Gqeberha magistrate’s court on Monday.

Slabbert faces charges of fraud and theft and is out on R5,000 bail.

The matter was postponed to Tuesday next week, when she is expected to appear in Gqeberha’s commercial crimes court for legal representation.

According to court papers, Slabbert was initially responsible for administering the weekly payroll.

From April 30 2024, she was further tasked with administering monthly payrolls.

Court papers state that she had authorised access to the Payspace payroll system and the NUTUN Transact Ltd third-party payment system.

This access would have allowed her to prepare, alter and submit payroll and payment information, triggering payments directly from Isuzu’s bank accounts.

Third-party payments are deductions taken from employees’ salaries, along with contributions made by Isuzu, and paid to specific organisations, not to the employees themselves.

These include medical aid, pension or provident fund contributions, insurance premiums, loan repayments, union fees and maintenance payments deducted under garnishee orders.

To make third-party payments, Isuzu used NUTUN, a third-party payment service provider separate from the Payspace payroll system.

Once the Payspace payroll system calculated the amounts payable to third parties, Isuzu would make a single consolidated payment to NUTUN.

NUTUN would then distribute and pay the relevant amounts to the respective third-party recipients.

“The accused was the only payroll administrator at Isuzu who had the NUTUN system installed on her work-issued laptop during the relevant period,” court papers state.

According to the state, Slabbert had two bank accounts registered in her name in which she allegedly deposited the funds.

Hawks spokesperson Lieutenant-Colonel Avele Fumba said employees raised concerns in August 2024 when they noticed that their take-home pay was lower than expected, despite higher amounts reflecting on their payslips.

“This prompted an internal review of the August 2024 payroll, during which an irregular payment in the amount of R625,500 was identified as having been processed from Isuzu’s Absa payroll bank account into a bank account [allegedly] held in the name of the accused,” Fumba said.

“The identification of this [alleged] irregular payment led to a broader investigation into the accused’s payroll and third-party payment activities.

“The investigation revealed that the accused [allegedly] devised a scheme to conceal unlawful payments by exploiting Isuzu’s third-party payment process.

“She [allegedly] caused inflated and duplicated amounts to be paid by Isuzu to its third-party payment service provider, NUTUN, and under the appearance of legitimate payroll-related deductions and contributions.

“Once those funds were received by NUTUN, the accused, who had access to and control over the NUTUN payment system, [allegedly] caused the funds to be paid out to bank accounts in her name, thereby disguising personal payments as third-party transactions.”

The company reportedly suffered losses exceeding R10.5m.

Between January 7 2018 and August 19 2024, Slabbert allegedly made a total of 127 transactions into her personal bank accounts.

The amounts varied widely, from as little as R47.50 and R77,366.06 allegedly paid into her account, to a single payment of R250,000 allegedly transferred to herself in one go.

The final amount she allegedly transferred to herself was R160,539.

Isuzu later dismissed Slabbert.

Fumba said the Hawks had adopted an intelligence-driven approach and secured evidence to uncover the full extent of the incident before effecting the arrest.

Hawks Eastern Cape head Major-General Mboiki Obed Ngwenya issued a strong warning that commercial crimes were not victimless crimes.

“It affects workers, damages businesses and harms our economy.

“People who abuse positions of trust to steal money will face the full force of the law.”

On Wednesday, Isuzu Motors SA brand strategy and field marketing senior manager Nandi Matomela said that in 2024, the matter was identified and addressed through internal disciplinary procedures in line with company policy.

“Following the conclusion of this process, the employee’s services were terminated in early 2025, and the internal matter was formally closed.

“The case was reported to the police and is being pursued as a criminal matter.”

Numsa Eastern Cape secretary Mziyanda Twani said the company’s management had yet to address the union.

“All that we could do was to confirm with shop stewards,” Twani said.

“We’re still looking internally at what the best way to deal with this is because we’ve been told that this is workers’ money.”

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