Cindy Nell-Roberts

After it was found that Cindy Nell-Roberts used money from Mrs South Africa’s women empowerment charity for her own expenses, she said she was ‘corrected the payment’. Image via Facebook Cindy Nell-Roberts

‘I corrected the payment’: Cindy Nell-Roberts on ‘misused’ pageant funds

After she was accused of ‘misusing’ funds from Mrs SA’s women empowerment charity, Cindy Nell-Roberts has cleared the air on the issue…

Cindy Nell-Roberts

After it was found that Cindy Nell-Roberts used money from Mrs South Africa’s women empowerment charity for her own expenses, she said she was ‘corrected the payment’. Image via Facebook Cindy Nell-Roberts

On Monday 16 May, Mrs South Africa 2020 finalist Chandré Goosen-Joubert won a court battle against Mrs South Africa’s women empowerment charity, Women4Women and its co-directors, Cindy Nell-Roberts and Joani Johnson, for access to its financial records. 

After Nell-Roberts admitted to “erroneously” using the money for personal expenses, she told Sunday Times that the Women4Women bank account is listed in her banking app as her own and claimed she made the payments “in a hurry” unaware that the money was from the charity’s bank account. 

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CHANDRÉ GOOSEN-JOUBERT VS CINDY-NELL ROBERTS 

Chandré Goosen-Joubert approached the Western Cape High Court after Cindy-Nell Roberts refused to hand over the Women4Women financial records for 2019, 2020 and 2021. 

In her judgement, Judge Babalwa Mantame said: “Even if [Goosen-Joubert] was a general member of the public and had a reason to believe the funds were not being used in a manner that was intended, she was entitled to invoke the provisions of Promotion of Access to Information Act (Paia).”

After receiving the financial records, Goosen-Joubert found that Women4Women co-director and former Miss South Africa Cindy Nell-Roberts, used some of the funds for her daughter’s birthday party and school fees. 

CINDY NELL-ROBERTS EXPLAINS THE PAYMENTS 

Speaking to the Sunday Times, Nell-Roberts explained that the Women4Women account is listed in her banking app as a cheque account and the few times when she made payments, she was “in a hurry” and paid from the account by mistake.

“As soon as the bookkeeper did the recon she pointed it out to me since I blatantly named them as my own expenses and I corrected the payment,” she explained. 

“Subsequently we have named the actual account Women4Women on the app, which I didn’t actually know I could do before a person at the bank showed me and since then, no accidental payments were made.”  

Nell-Roberts added that she would be appealing Judge Mantame’s judgement. 

‘I HOPE SHE HAS A BETTER DEFENCE’

In response to Judge Mantame’s judgement, Goosen-Joubert said she was pleased by the news. 

“I feel vindicated by the judgement in my favour, especially after Ms Nell-Roberts attempted to defame me as some sort of disgruntled attention-seeker.”

“I hope she has a better defence than ‘oops.’”

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