Three suspects one of whom is a facilitator of safer city at the EThekwini Municipality appeared before the Durban Specialised Commercial Crimes Court on 12 December 2018, for fraud and theft.
The three were arrested by the Hawks National Clean Audit Task Team (NCATT) in the wake of on going investigations regarding alleged fraud and corruption activities at the municipality.
The accused allegedly conspired and misrepresented members of public in 2017 that they had secured an Extended Public Works Programme (EPWP) tender at the municipality and promised them jobs.
About ten individuals were allegedly recruited and instructed to open bank accounts and kept by the suspects. Investigation revealed that after two weeks of opening the accounts, substantial amounts of money were deposited into each account by the municipality.
The so called ten ghost workers were contacted and they were given a once off meagre payment from the alleged criminal earnings.
The EThekwini Municipality Integrity Investigative unit received a tip off from whistleblower and after their internal investigations referred the matter to the SAPS Commercial Crime unit and in turn taken the investigations were taken over by the NCATT which lead to the arrest of the three.
South Africa Today – South Africa News
