Ex-top manager at Msunduzi implicated in looting of assets

A former senior Msunduzi Municipality official who’s facing a fraud charge has been fingered as a central figure in a looting scheme involving the theft of heavy machinery, at the embattled municipality.

The official will appear in the Durban Magistrate Court on January 22 for charges of soliciting a R100 000 bribe from a municipal service provider.

Provincial police spokesperson, Colonel Robert Netshiunda, confirmed that the man will appear in court for fraud.

City spokesperson Ntobeko Mkhize said the employee was caught red-handed with the bribe money.

This bribe was after the heavy-duty machinery went missing and recovered between 2019 and 2020.

This case was delayed and the man resigned when he realized that the net was closing in on him.

The city was tipped off by the service provider that the man had solicited a R100 000 bribe for the payment of the company’s invoice.

A trap was set and the man was caught with the money in his possession.

“There’s no way that he can get away with this one because all the evidence and exhibit is there,” said Mkhize.

An insider said the official allegedly sold a TLB for R95 000, a bobcat for R40 000, and an Isuzu bakkie for R25 000 to a businessman in uMzimkhulu.

The machinery was due to have been disposed of at a public auction.

All the municipal assets involved in that case were recovered by internal investigators and were brought back and put in front of the official’s office. He became stressed and resigned. The conclusions into the matter are based on the analysis of documentary evidence the vehicle monitoring system (EWCop) obtained, and interviews conducted with various witnesses during the forensic investigation.

“The investigation revealed that a Bell TLB — NPC 862 had disappeared from the Workshop at Mountain Rise Cemetery between July 31, 2019, and January 16, 2020. The Bobcat — NPC 857 had disappeared sometime before the TLB. Both machines were delivered to the same workshop for the same owner,” said the insider.

An entry made in Royal Security Occurrence Book on October 4, 2019, by a security officer confirmed that the TLB was removed by a towing company on that day.

It was also confirmed that a municipal employee driving a small car which had been branded as “Fleet Management” had assisted in the removal of the TLB. The car was identified as NPC 4197 and the EWCop Vehicle Trip Detail Report identified the driver.

Historical municipal records

regarding auctions show that all three vehicles were due to be auctioned but that NPC 862 and NPC 6210 had been withdrawn from the auctions. NPC 6210 was later included in a report to the Council for approval to be disposed of in an auction planned for later in 2021.

Department of Transport records show that NPC 6210 is currently registered with a new registration and the police are due to seize the vehicle.

Provincial police spokesperson Constable Thenjiswa Ngcobo confirmed that a 42-year-old man was arrested in connection with the stolen machinery, and had since appeared before the Pietermaritzburg Magistrate’s Court on November 23, 2021.

NPA KZN regional spokesperson, Natasha Ramkisson-Kara, confirmed that the man was convicted of the theft, but could not provide details about the sentence.

When contacted for comment, the former employee said: “I don’t wish to comment on this because I do not know where it is headed”.

Now, opposition councilors want an internal investigation to establish how large assets like the TLB could have been transported to another part of the province without raising suspicion.

IFP uMgungundlovu District chairperson and Msunduzi councilor, Thinasonke Ntombela, said even though the matter has not reached the council, it was disturbing that people would loot a “struggling” municipality instead of helping to rebuild it.

Ntombela said even though the man had since resigned, that should not render him immune to accountability.

This should be a criminal matter, especially if the stolen goods were recovered and evidence points at him as being the thief. I don’t think that he acted alone in pulling this off because these are huge machinery that ended up in another part of the province. A thorough investigation is warranted to ensure that everyone involved accounts for the crime committed.

The ACDP councillor in Msunduzi, Rienus Niemand, said the implicated official must meet the “full might of the law”.

“For the municipality, the province, and indeed the country to have a chance of being turned around, we need to start by eliminating crime and corruption at all levels,” said Niemand.

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