Questions of a possible inside job are not off the table after the recovery of a trailer full of stolen eThekwini municipality streetlights.
The 52 LED lights were discovered in the trailer of a vehicle headed for Mozambique at the Kosi Bay border post on Saturday.
Two suspects, aged 31 and 44, were arrested in a joint operation between Hawks from the Richards Bay serious organised crime investigation unit and Kosi Bay border management authority (BMA).
Maxwell Mthembu, eThekwini head of electricity, told members of the executive committee on Tuesday that the two suspects are Mozambican nationals.
He said the city’s electricity unit had confirmed the value of the recovered street lights to be R151,537.96.
“The initial quoted value of between R1.8m and R1.9m was an estimate without any confirmation from the municipality’s supply chain management and engineers responsible for the procurement of these items.”
Mayor Mxolisi Kaunda told members of the executive committee on Tuesday: “While we don’t want to jump the gun, we must reiterate our commitment to root out any form of criminality within the municipality. Otherwise, if allowed to continue, our efforts to deliver quality services and improve the lives of our people will be in vain.”
Mthembu said they were working with a specialised police multidisciplinary economic infrastructure task team (EITT) to fight infrastructure theft.
“To combat theft of infrastructure, the department has implemented a joint operation strategy that brings together teams from all regions, and internal investigations has led to the disciplinary and dismissal of seven employees within the unit.”
Mthembu said the value of the stolen and recovered infrastructure registered with police since April 2022 was between R100,000 to more than R4m, with 24 arrests made in relation to these crimes.
IFP caucus leader and Exco member Mdu Nkosi said the city must reveal what happened to the workers who were arrested.
“That is not enough. We want to know the status of those workers because it may happen that they may have been absorbed back to the municipality. Were they sentenced or cleared?”
He also questioned why they had not been informed of the missing streetlights and why there had been no report of the arrests and dismissals of the employees until now.
“It speaks to the loose nature of our internal controls. If it were not for the arrest of the two suspects and it being in the media, were we going to know about it? When were we going to know that so much infrastructure was missing? Where was the security when so much property went missing? When were we going to know of the previous arrests of municipal employees?”
Nkosi believes that this is an “ongoing syndicate” and that an internal investigation will bring to light more details.
Mthembu saidmore than 90% of streetlights in the municipality are functional and that they are focusing on inspection and repairs of streetlights in the city centre and major highways.
TimesLIVE
Streetlight theft highlights deeper infrastructure syndicate at eThekwini municipality
Image: Sandile Ndlovu
Questions of a possible inside job are not off the table after the recovery of a trailer full of stolen eThekwini municipality streetlights.
The 52 LED lights were discovered in the trailer of a vehicle headed for Mozambique at the Kosi Bay border post on Saturday.
Two suspects, aged 31 and 44, were arrested in a joint operation between Hawks from the Richards Bay serious organised crime investigation unit and Kosi Bay border management authority (BMA).
Maxwell Mthembu, eThekwini head of electricity, told members of the executive committee on Tuesday that the two suspects are Mozambican nationals.
He said the city’s electricity unit had confirmed the value of the recovered street lights to be R151,537.96.
“The initial quoted value of between R1.8m and R1.9m was an estimate without any confirmation from the municipality’s supply chain management and engineers responsible for the procurement of these items.”
Mayor Mxolisi Kaunda told members of the executive committee on Tuesday: “While we don’t want to jump the gun, we must reiterate our commitment to root out any form of criminality within the municipality. Otherwise, if allowed to continue, our efforts to deliver quality services and improve the lives of our people will be in vain.”
Mthembu said they were working with a specialised police multidisciplinary economic infrastructure task team (EITT) to fight infrastructure theft.
“To combat theft of infrastructure, the department has implemented a joint operation strategy that brings together teams from all regions, and internal investigations has led to the disciplinary and dismissal of seven employees within the unit.”
Mthembu said the value of the stolen and recovered infrastructure registered with police since April 2022 was between R100,000 to more than R4m, with 24 arrests made in relation to these crimes.
IFP caucus leader and Exco member Mdu Nkosi said the city must reveal what happened to the workers who were arrested.
“That is not enough. We want to know the status of those workers because it may happen that they may have been absorbed back to the municipality. Were they sentenced or cleared?”
He also questioned why they had not been informed of the missing streetlights and why there had been no report of the arrests and dismissals of the employees until now.
“It speaks to the loose nature of our internal controls. If it were not for the arrest of the two suspects and it being in the media, were we going to know about it? When were we going to know that so much infrastructure was missing? Where was the security when so much property went missing? When were we going to know of the previous arrests of municipal employees?”
Nkosi believes that this is an “ongoing syndicate” and that an internal investigation will bring to light more details.
Mthembu saidmore than 90% of streetlights in the municipality are functional and that they are focusing on inspection and repairs of streetlights in the city centre and major highways.
TimesLIVE
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