JB Marks Municipality Executive Mayor, Kgotso Moses Khumalo, and Cyril Hendry, a director at the municipality, have this morning appeared before the Potchefstroom Magistrate's Court on charges of fraud and theft following their arrest on Friday.
In a statement, the Hawks said the arrests emanate from investigations that were conducted by its Serious Commercial Crime Investigation into a trust account, where a total of approximately R5 million intended for the JB Marks municipality was deposited.
“The funds, however, were never declared to the Auditor-General,” the Hawks said.
Through investigations, it was discovered that a series of payments were allegedly made from the trust into the suspects' private bank accounts instead.
It is alleged that the funds in the trust were misrepresented to appear as if they were being used to pay for services rendered to the municipality, while invoices were allegedly being falsified.
In some instances, said the Hawks, funds were allegedly paid into service providers' accounts for services that were never rendered. Thereafter, the money would allegedly be collected by the suspects.
Investigations continue and more arrests cannot be ruled out.
In court, the case was postponed to 1 December 2020 for further investigation.
The suspects were released on warning. They were ordered to not set foot anywhere near the municipality and not to contact any of the witnesses until the case is concluded. – SAnews.gov.za
