Dialysis thief who offered manager R5 000 to strip clinic walks out of court with a R6 000 fine

A 38-year-old man who tried to buy his way into a dialysis institution’s storeroom has been convicted and sentenced, with most of his prison time suspended.

Thabiso Steven Mokwana appeared in the Evander Regional Court in Mpumalanga, where he pleaded guilty and was sentenced on 28 October 2026. The Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation, the Hawks, says the equipment involved was worth about R47 000.

The case began on 22 May 2024, when the manager of a dialysis institution in Trichardt alerted the Secunda Hawks. According to the police account, Mokwana had approached the manager with a proposal: steal dialysis consumables from the facility and hand them over in exchange for R5 000.

The manager reported it instead.

On the corruption count Mokwana was sentenced to a fine of R6 000 or two years’ imprisonment. For conspiracy and inducing another person to commit a crime he received 18 months’ imprisonment, wholly suspended for five years. For theft he received two years’ imprisonment, also wholly suspended for five years.

The Hawks in Mpumalanga welcomed the conviction and sentencing.

Dialysis consumables are the disposable lines, filters and fluids a patient’s treatment depends on. A facility that loses them loses treatment capacity, and the patients on the machine are the ones who carry that.

Nothing in the police account suggests Mokwana was employed by the institution or had access to its stores. The scheme depended on persuading someone who did.