A 38-year-old ex-CFO of Thembelihle Local Municipality was arrested for withholding third-party payments, leading to R6 million in pension debt, while two Phokwane Local Municipality cashiers were nabbed for fraud and money laundering, resulting in a R3 million loss.
The arrests with the municipal focus were made by the the Serious Commercial Crime Investigation team in Kimberly on Thursday.
Lieutenant Colonel Tebogo Thebe said the first arrest took place in Victoria West.
Randile Jacobs Shuping, 38, is accused of withholding third party payments while serving as a Chief Financial Officer of Thembelihle Local Municipality, between February 2021 and July 2023,
“One of those third parties is Consolidated Retirement Pension Fund (CFR), Thebe said.
Thebe added that the action left municipality with a debt of over R6 million in pension fund contributions for employees, violating Section 13A of the Pension Fund Act 24 of 1956, with 1800 counts of contravention.
“Mr Shuping was taken to Hopetown Magistrate court immediately after his arrest where the court released him on R5000 bail.”
The matter will be back on April 25, 2025.
The second arrest with municipal focus took place in Hartswater.
Thebe said the team arrested two Phokwani Local Municipality cashiers for fraud, theft and money laundering.
“Mr Thato Morake (34) and Mr Ayanda Ndwanya (35) are accused of defrauding the municipality between January 2022 and August 2023,” Thebe said.
Thebe explained that an auditing undertaken by the municipality revealed that the duo captured municipal payments as direct deposits in the internal financial ledgers, while they don’t reflect in the bank statements.
“It appears that the suspects were pocketing cash payments for personal use and reflecting them as directs deposits.”
The municipality suffered a total loss of over R3 million, Thebe added.
Meanwhile, the Provincial Head of the Hawks in Northern Cape Major General Stephen Mabuela expressed his appreciation to the investigation teams for proper investigation and placing the dockets before court.
“The plan is to intensify the arrests and place most of the matters before courts,” Mabuela said.
IOL News