Municipal manager and CFO found guilty of corruption

A former municipal manager and chief financial official at the Karoo Hoogland Municipality and another person were found guilty fraud and corruption by the Williston Regional Court in the Northern Cape on Wednesday.

The trio‚ former municipal manager Louis Nothnagel‚ 55‚ chief financial officer‚ Marius Botha‚ 53‚ as well as Ockert Tobias Cloete‚ 65‚ were found guilty on nine charges of fraud‚ corruption‚ money laundering and contravention of section 173 (1) of the Municipal Finance Management Act no 53 of 2003.

The Hawks’ investigation revealed that there was collusion between Botha and his friend Cloete‚ a bogus company owner.

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The bogus company received undue payments for delivery and installation of 600 solar geysers to the community in Williston‚ the Hawks said in a statement.

These transactions were carried out between July 2011 and April 2012‚ before the service was rendered. A total amount of over R217‚000 was paid to the unregistered company in four separate transactions.

“Initially the households were charged in advance for the installation and were later refunded. The free geyser installation programme was later carried out by Sun Power (Pty) Ltd at the cost of about R5.1-million in rebates paid by ESKOM.

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The role of the Karoo Hoogland Municipality was only to facilitate the processes‚” the Hawks said Furthermore‚ the Hawks’ investigation revealed that the prescribed procurement processes were not followed in appointing the service provider.

The former municipal manager was charged for failing to prevent unauthorised and wasteful expenditure and failure to take reasonable steps to prevent corruption.

The three are out on R10‚000 bail and will return to court for sentencing in August.