The Hawks Serious Commercial Investigation team has served five suspects linked to the George Local Municipality with court summons to appear at the local magistrate court on charges of fraud, corruption and contravention of the Municipal Finance Management Act.
The former mayor allegedly offered work to a company on a planned project long before it was formally registered with the municipality. He further colluded with the municipal manager and senior personnel within the Community Services department of the Municipality and appointed other associated companies to do work under the “War on Waste” project in 2017.
These service providers allegedly received payments long before the project was formally registered or a project budget allocation was made. About R9 million was paid between May 2017 to December 2017.
A chain of gratifications was allegedly paid to the officials involved in the form of cash payments, holiday accommodation and donations for school functions.
The matter was reported to the Hawks for investigation in 2018 after one of the company director’s reported fraudulent and corrupt behaviour of the officials in 2018. This was due to the failure to deliver on the promises made to the companies, when the relationship between the Mayor and his councillor allegedly turned sour.
The former Mayor as well as four other senior officials aged between 60 and 48 years old will make their first court appearance on 09 October 2020.