GAUTENG – Hawks’ Serious Commercial Crime unit members in Gauteng have on Wednesday arrested a 29 year old City of Johannesburg Executive on allegations of fraud and corruption.
The investigation were as a result of a two year probe in which the Candidate Building Valuer was implicated in the defrauding of the Municipality of over R40million by allegedly degrading numerous buildings prices in the inner city for personal gain between August 2013 and October 2014.
The investigations which started on September 2015 are at an advance stage as it is believed that the suspect was not acting alone.
Gauteng Provincial Head of Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation Major General Prince Mokotedi is pleased with the arrest and said that “The continuous effort in rooting out corruption in government is yielding good results. We have committed ourselves to the citizens of South Africa that we will not relent from doing our job without fear or favour. These arrests should serve as a stern warning to those who think they are invisible and difficult to be detected”, he said.
This latest arrest brings the total number of suspects arrested to nine with links to the City of Johannesburg. A week ago eight suspects stationed at Martindale Licensing Department and Sandton Drivers Testing Centre respectively, were arrested by the Hawks.
The fraud suspect, 29 year old woman, will appear before the Johannesburg Specialised Commercial Crimes Court on Thursday for fraud and corruption.