Ex-municipal manager faces fraud sentence

‘He got draft or pro forma invoices, diverted money to accounts’

A FORMER municipal manager in Oudtshoorn in the Klein Karoo was due to be sentenced today on five counts of fraud and one of money laundering, together amounting to R225 900.

Sentencing proceedings commenced yesterday in the Specialised Commercial Crime Court in Bellville before magistrate Sabrina Sonnenberg.

Thandile Wilbarforce Salman, 34, pleaded not guilty to all charges, and still maintains his innocence.

Two other municipal officials from Oudtshoorn, Ronnie Lottering and Noel Petersen, have already been found guilty on charges of violating the Municipal Financial Management Act, and are out on bail pending the outcome of their appeal against their five-year prison sentences.

At yesterday’s hearing, prosecutor Ezmerelda Johnson led the testimony of the current municipal manager, Allen Paulse, who said the municipality had had to be placed under administration twice as a result of management fraud, maladministration and corruption – the first time in 2007, and again last year.

Salman was arrested in 2012, following investigations by the hawks

According to the charge sheet, Salman fraudulently obtained draft or pro forma invoices and quotations. From these he produced fake invoices and quotations, which he falsely claimed were issued by legitimate service providers for work done, and also requested payment.

The court heard that he diverted the money, fraudulently obtained, into bank accounts of friends and family members.