Opposition parties in the embattled KwaDukuza Local Municipality, north of KwaZulu-Natal have called for the tangible proof of the R30 million that was recovered from the 15 companies which was illegally transferred to their accounts.
On January 31, ABSA bank officials notified the municipality of the suspicious transactions that were taking place which resulted in the illegal transfer of R35 million to the 15 companies.
Although on February 27, the municipality publicly announced that it had recovered the R30 million, opposition parties say they have not seen any tangible evidence that the money was already in the municipality’s account.
ActionSA councillor Halalisani Ndlovu who also sits on the municipality’s finance committee said that the committee has not yet seen the proof of the recovery. Ndlovu said on February 27, the council was shown a statement from ABSA which indicated that the R30 million had been added to the municipality’s account, however, when the finance committee met on March 19, there was no transaction of R30 million into the municipality’s account, saying that left the committee members asking themselves whether the recovery was public relations exercise or not.
He explained that in the committee’s monthly meeting, members always receive the breakdown of all transitions that had taken place in that month.
“We cannot boldly say the municipality has recovered the R30 million because we have not seen the proof. All we know is that the money was recovered. We will only believe once we have seen the transactions showing us the money coming into the municipality’s account,” said Ndlovu.
He also questioned the manner in which the money was recovered, asking how it happened that all the 14 companies paid the R30 million at once. He said he was expecting they would be a reflection of each company returning the amount of money.
Another point raised by the ActionSA, is why the directors of the implicated companies were not yet arrested, as they are known.
“There is a shroud of secrecy around this matter and we are calling for full disclosure of the names of the directors and why they have not been arrested,” said Ndlovu.
The Democratic Alliance’s Privi Makhan called for full forensic investigation into the matter and also called for the precautionary suspension of certain individuals.
The municipality’s spokesperson Sifiso Zulu has not yet responded to questions sent to him, however, on March 20, the municipality issued a statement that R30.8 million was recovered and only 4, 4 million was still remaining. The municipality also announced that the forensic investigation will be appointed to investigate the activities associated with the usernames in question and determine the extent of the activities performed throughout the Information technology infrastructure and possible relation to fraudulent transactions.