Six officials at a Free State municipality and two company directors appeared in the Ficksburg magistrate’s court on Friday on fraud charges related to a R25m toilet infrastructure tender.
Senzo Kunene, Asanda Nontsimi, Flory Monamola, Gubevu Albert Maduna, Johny Edward Lynch, Nkosinathi Victor Ngezi, Lawrence Tshikovha and Lesite Patrick Tsoaela appeared in court just hours after their arrest by the Hawks’ serious commercial crime unit in Bethlehem.
Hawks spokesperson Capt Christopher Singo said the arrests stemmed from an incident that took place between October and November 2018.
“The six officials were members of the bid evaluation committee [BEC] and did not evaluate documents properly that were submitted at Setsoto local municipality for a toilet infrastructure [tender].
“The company TML Civils, through its directors, submitted fraudulent documents for the tender. The BEC committee [then] recommended that the same company be awarded the tender worth R25m, even though their papers were fraudulent,” said Singo.
An unsigned award letter was then e-mailed to TML Civils, but a preliminary probe by the municipal manager later revealed that TML had actually submitted fraudulent documents.
The matter was reported to the police, who then handed the case over to the Hawks for further investigation.
The eight, who also face forgery and uttering charges, were released on R2,000 bail each. The case was postponed to June 11.
TimesLIVE
Just R20 for the first month. Support independent journalism by subscribing to our digital news package. 
