Chief financial officer of the City of Matlosana Municipality, Mercy Maebe Phetla; acting Store Controller in the North West municipality Mmatebesi Josephine Sekhejane, 42; and Tiisetso Sebetlele, 33, director of a company Variegated Pty (Ltd) were arrested on charges of fraud.
The trio appeared before the Klerksdorp Magistrate’s Court on Monday, according to Lieutenant Colonel Tinyiko Mathebula, North West spokesperson for the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation, also known as the Hawks.
“The trio was arrested (on Monday) morning by members of the Hawks' serious corruption investigation unit, following an investigation into allegations of procurement irregularities,” said Mathebula.
“It is alleged that in January 2024, the municipality paid a service provider an amount of R2.9 million for electrical materials, which were never delivered.”
The accused trio was granted bail by the court.
Phetla was granted R35,000 bail, Sekhejane was released on R5,000 bail while Sebetlele was granted R20 000 bail.
“The court has ordered that the accused report at their nearest police stations once a week and that they must not be in contact with the State's witnesses,” said Mathebula.
The case against the accused three people was postponed to November 12 for further investigations.
Meanwhile, provincial head of the Hawks in North West, Major General Patrick Mbotho and the director of public prosecutions in North West, Dr Rachel Makhari have welcomed the arrest and subsequent court appearance of the accused.
Mbotho and Makhari have vowed that the Hawks and National Prosecuting Authority in the province will continue working together “to fight malfeasance in public institutions”.
In June, IOL reported that the Mayor of the City of Matlosana, James Tsolela, abruptly resigned from his lucrative job following an instruction from his party to step down after it emerged that he dribbled a donor into giving him money, which he allegedly never delivered to the African National Congress (ANC) when he was the fund-raising for the party.
In April, the Sunday Independent revealed that the ANC in the North West had written to the party’s leadership informing them that the province had resolved that Tsolela should resign; and the embattled chief financial officer, Phetla, be suspended pending the outcome of the corruption investigation against her.
IOL