Kgotso Khumalo, the mayor of JB Marks Municipality in the North West, and senior manager Cyril Hendry, have been arrested by the Hawks on allegations of theft and fraud.
The charges arise from an alleged deposit of R5 million into the municipality’s trust account, which was never declared to the Auditor-General, according to IOL.
The two men were arrested on Friday and appeared in the Potchefstroom Magistrate’s Court a few hours later.
According to the report, Captain Tlangelani Rikhotso said the Hawks’ Serious Commercial Crime Investigation Unit had conducted investigations into the account and discovered a series of payments were allegedly made from the account to Khumalo’s and Hendry’s private bank accounts instead.
He said investigations also revealed 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, funds were allegedly paid into service providers’ accounts for services that were never rendered, thereafter the money would allegedly be collected by the suspects,’ Rikhotso said.
The case was postponed to December 1 for further investigation.
[Picture: Bill Oxford on Unsplash]