Five suspects accused of theft and fraud worth R590 000 appeared at the Rustenburg Magistrate Court on Wednesday.
Solomon Motepe, Jaki Montsho, Michael Maledu, Christian Letlhake and Linky are said to be the executive committee members of Schaapkraal Communal Property Association (CPA), an association that consists of beneficiaries of the Schaapkraal Farm in Marikana.
According to Captain Tlangelani Rikhotso the CPA had a contract with Eskom and a payment for the annual servitude rights was due from the power utility.
The five executive committee members allegedly conspired and gave Eskom a different bank account for the payment to be deposited.
“In August 2019, two payments were made into the account and the group allegedly shared the funds between themselves, failing to disclose the said payment to the rest of the CPA members.
“The matter was reported to the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation and the Serious Commercial Crime Investigation unit probed the matter, which led to the arrest of the accused on 31 January 2023,” said Rikhotso.
Rikhotso said the five accused were released on R1 000 bail and the matter was postponed to 15 February.
