On Monday, the specialised commercial crimes court, sitting
in Palm Ridge magistrate's court, found her guilty of contempt of court, after
failing to honour her court appearances several times.
TimesLIVE understands that Zahara handed herself over to
police on Monday morning and made a brief appearance in court. This was in line
with the execution of her warrant of arrest that was issued in April after the
muso failed to appear in court on tax-related charges.
NPA spokesperson Phindi Mjonondwane confirmed that Zahara
was charged in her personal capacity and as a representative of her company,
Zahara Trading (Pty) Ltd, for the non-submission of personal and company income
tax returns to Sars.
Eric Gyimah of Warner Music SA said Zahara was “currently
away and unavailable as she prepares for her album release next month”.
“I have no further comment,” he said.
Mjonondwane said advocate Nerissa Reddy from the
Johannesburg specialised tax unit argued that the singer's explanations for not
appearing in court were highly unreasonable and Zahara only appeared in court
when commercial crimes investigators W/O Pillay and Const Tumber began tracing
her whereabouts.
Mjonondwane said the state argued that due to her celebrity
status Zahara could not be treated with kid gloves as justice should be meted
out equally as everyone was equal in the eyes of the law and should be treated
as such.
The presiding officer Emmanuel Magampa found Zahara’s
reasons for not appearing unreasonable. She was found guilty of failure to
appear in court. She was served a R1,500 fine or three months' imprisonment.
Zahara was warned to appear in court at the next appearance
date with further conditions attached to her warning and was requested to hand
in her passport to the commercial crimes officers within 24 hours of the court
appearance and to report to the Roodepoort police station on Tuesdays and
Thursdays between 8am and 6pm.
She will be back in court on June 25 for the disclosure of
the docket for the Sars tax return case.
TimesLIVE
0 comments:
Post a Comment