Ex-councillor behind bars after skipping court
FORMER Maletswai municipality councillor Ntombizanele Williams, 54, will appear at the Aliwal North Magistrate’s Court tomorrow to face charges of fraudulently selling municipallyowned plots for her own benefit.
She was rearrested by the Hawks last Tuesday and has been in police custody since.
Williams was picked up after the court issued a warrant of arrest following her failure to appear in court in April.
Williams was initially arrested in December 2015 and charged with taking bribes for some 200 plots, which the Aliwal Northbased municipality had earmarked for a new low-cost housing development.
The 200 plots were among an allocation of 457 which council had allocated to the houses of qualifying Soul City informal settlement beneficiaries.
In February 2016 the Daily Dispatch reported it was the local authority’s council decision that the remaining 200-odd plots be set aside and given to other beneficiaries from across the municipality who qualified for lowcost housing.
Maletswai municipality was disestablished and amalgamated with Gariep local municipality to form Walter Sisulu local municipality in August 2016.
Williams’ initial arrest in 2015 followed a sting operation in which an undercover Hawks official bought a plot, allegedly from her.
While the case was still in court, the ANC conducted its own investigation in 2016 and summoned Williams before the party’s integrity committee.
Hawks spokeswoman Captain Anelisa Feni said it was alleged that during 2015, Williams had sold a number of municipal plots to people for between R2 000 and R10 000.
“She allegedly promised the buyers that the RDP house which would be built there would automatically be theirs.”
Feni said after Williams was arrested by the serious corruption investigation unit in 2015, “she failed to appear before court on April 24 2017 and a warrant for her arrest was issued the same day.
“She was arrested on Tuesday, and she appeared in court on the same day,” Feni added. — thembiles@