Tight bail conditions for 4 fraud accused former Kannaland officials

FOUR former municipal senior managers from the embattled Kannaland municipality were released on R15 000 bail each after appearing in court yesterday on charges of fraud and contravention of the Municipal Finance Management Act (MFMA).

The arrests have angered the Independent Civic Organisation of South Africa (Icosa) which described them as an “attack” on the Kannaland municipality.

The Kannaland municipality has been thrown into the spotlight recently after child rapist Jeffrey Donson, of Icosa, was re-elected as the executive mayor following the local government elections, while fraudster Werner Meshoa, also of Icosa, was elected as his deputy, with the help of the ANC.

The four former officials are human resources manager Mcgrandile Makier; corporate services manager Hendrik Barnard; municipal manager Morne Hoogbaard; and chief financial officer Nigel Delo.

The three were arrested by the Hawks' Serious Commercial Crime Investigation team for alleged fraud, while the municipal manager later handed himself over to the Hawks' offices, said Hawks spokesperson Katlego Mogale.

“It is alleged that they defrauded the municipality of more than R338 million by enriching themselves through fraudulent appointments in senior positions and allowances and that the company owned by one of them benefited whilst the owner was working for the municipality,” Mogale said.

National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) spokesperson, Eric Ntabazalila said they were charged with two counts of fraud and two counts of Contravention of the Municipal Finance Management Act.

“They were released on R15 000 bail each with conditions that they must stay at their present addresses and inform the investigating officer if they are about to change their addresses. They must not make contact with witnesses directly or indirectly and must hand over their travel documents, whether they have expired or not,” he said.

Icosa said the arrests were “orchestrated” by the DA who “do not want to see coloured people run a municipality”.

The DA refuted this claim as “absolute nonsense“.

Icosa provincial leader, Dawid Kamfer said: “The DA is sitting behind all these things, because it's coloured people who are now running the municipality. We will seriously look into these things. Where are these things coming from now and why didn't they come up when the DA was in charge of Kannaland?

“We will look into why they did not arrest the people when the DA was in charge – why now? The DA was in charge for more than four years in the municipality,” he said.

Kamfer also slammed claims that Donson was “on the run” when the arrests were made as false, saying he had to attend a council meeting in the Eden municipality.

“Mr Donson is not that kind of man. He will never run from anybody,” he said.

Donson slammed “attacks” on Icosa and said he had no criminal case to answer to.

DA MPL Gillion Bosman said: “Icosa is delusional. The reason the DA councillors were not arrested is because they do not engage in corruption.

“From what we understand, this is an old case of corruption that has been investigated for a long time. This case relates to theft and corruption when they were in government,” he said.

The case against the four was transferred to the Oudtshoorn Regional Court and will be on the roll in January next year.