The Rustenburg Magistrates Court in the North West, has postponed the bail application by three former employees of the Bojanala District Municipality and service provider, to 20 March.
The suspects are Leslina Ndlovu, who’s a former Chief Financial Officer at the municipality, Patrick Tlhapi, Chief Whip, Secretary to the former Municipal Manager, Gontse Kekana, service provider Mantsho Moremi and Patrick Shikwane.According to the Directorate for Priority Crime in the North West (Hawks) the group is facing charges of fraud, money laundering, corruption, and contravention of the Municipal Finance Management Act.
The accused were arrested on Monday following an investigation by the Hawks into allegations of defrauding the Municipality over R25 million between December 2018 and May 2019.
“It is alleged that in 2018, Ndlovu colluded with a service provider, who is still at large, to have her company, which was not on the database of the municipality’s service providers, to claim payments for services rendered to the municipality. The CFO and the service provider allegedly used details of a registered service provider to claim for payments. However, the payments were paid into a bank account that was not on the municipality’s database,” said the Hawks spokesperson, Lieutenant Colonel Tinyiko Mathebula.
The investigation also revealed that an amount of over R2 million was transferred from the service provider’s bank account into the bank account of the CFO’s company.
“It was further established that R150 000 was transferred from the service provider’s bank account into the personal bank account of the Chief Whip. Secretary to the former municipal manager reportedly benefitted R850 000 from the funds,” explained Mathebula. Authorities said that the arrest of two other service providers is imminent.
