Ex-municipal officials, company director get bail in tender fraud case
It is alleged that during the 2017-2018 financial year, the Sakhisizwe local municipality embarked on a sports field upliftment project
Two former senior Sakhisizwe local municipality officials and a director of a private civil engineering company firm were each granted bail of R10,000 in Mthatha’s specialised commercial crimes court on Thursday.
The three — former Sakhisizwe municipal manager Dumile Mvulane, 59, ex-municipal project manager Nothemba Ntlantsana-toyi, 45, and Sky High Engineering Consulting director Claudius Nhawu, 42 — were arrested by the East London Hawks’ Anti-coruption unit.
Provincial Hawks spokesperson Captain Yolisa Mgolodela said Ntlantsana-toyi was arrested in Gqeberha and Mvulane in his house in Ngcobo on Wednesday.
They were taken to the Mthatha Central police station on Thursday morning.
Nhawu handed himself to the police on Thursday morning.
They were charged before being whisked to court for their first appearance.
Mgolodela said the three had been implicated in alleged municipal tender fraud, relating to a sports field project.
“It is alleged that during the 2017-2018 financial year, the Sakhisizwe local municipality embarked on a sports field upliftment project in Khowa Town.
“The project was allocated R12m. The tender was advertised and companies submitted their documents for bidding.”
Mgolodela said the municipality’s bid adjudication committee had reportedly nominated a deserving company and forwarded its name to the municipal manager.
However, he allegedly substituted the name with that of his preferred company without providing reasons to the treasury.
A civil engineering company which had also been appointed for the project is alleged to have escalated the costs by R4.9m from the initial budget, resulting in the budget escalating to more than R16m.
“It is reported that the auditor-general discovered the discrepancy and a complaint was lodged with the serious commercial crime investigation unit in East London for investigation in 2019.”
More arrests were imminent, Mgolodela said.
The case was postponed August 1. to