Five Matjhabeng Local Municipality employees in the Free State are appearing this morning in the Welkom Magistrates Court following their arrests this morning during an operation by the National Clean Audit Task team.
The suspects who are aged between 55 and 36 are part of the ongoing investigation by the Directorate for Priority Crimes Investigation into corruption-related activities within the municipalities around the country.
The suspects are alleged to have been part of the investigation by the National Clean Audit Task Team into fraud, forgery, uttering, contravention of the Municipal Finance Act and within the Matjhabeng Local Municipality. It is reported that one of the suspects facilitated appointments of the other accused which resulted in the municipality being prejudiced an actual loss of over R1 million.