The Executive Mayor, Kgotso Moses Khumalo (52) and Director, Cyril Hendry (54) of the JB Marks Municipality, appeared before the Potchefstroom Magistrate’s Court facing charges of fraud and theft following their arrest on Friday.
The arrests emanate from investigations that were conducted by the Hawks’ 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.
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, meanwhile 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.
Investigations continue and more arrests cannot be ruled out.
Meanwhile, the case was postponed to 01 December 2020 for further investigation. 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.
