Directors of Hartman Industrial Equipment (PTY) Ltd – 63-year-old Charles Sydney Hendry Hartman and 61-year-old Eulene Hartman – appeared before the Evander Magistrate’s Court on Fraud charges related to supplying Sasol with inferior products in disguised branding.
The pair were arrested by the Hawks in Secunda, Mpumalanga, on Tuesday and they appeared in court the same day before they were released on warning.
Allegations were reported anonymously to Sasol via Sasol Ethics Line that Hartmans Industrial Equipment (PTY) Ltd supplied Sasol (PTY) Ltd with less expensive actuators sourced from Omal Automation (PTY) Ltd instead of actuators sourced from Festo (PTY) Ltd.
An actuator is a component of a machine that is responsible for moving and controlling a mechanism or system, for example by opening a valve.
“They allegedly supplied these actuators in Festo-branded packaging,” Captain Dineo Lucy Sekgotodi explained.
The Hartmans are accused of defrauding Sasol by supplying Omal actuators instead of agreed Festo actuators, charging the same price.
Based on the outcome of an audit conducted by Sasol, it was discovered that the Hartmans had been supplying the actuators to Sasol from 2011 to 2017.
They had supplied 182 in the period mentioned and 88 of them were Omal actuators instead of Festo actuators.
The Hartmans have paid back Sasol the money they unlawfully profited.
The matter was postponed to 8 June 2022 for further investigation and both accused were released on warning.
