eThekwini employees arrested for diesel theft

Two employees of eThekwini municipality have been arrested after they were allegedly caught red-handed stealing diesel.

A municipal water truck was caught allegedly offloading diesel at a private residence while another water truck was parked next to the gate of the same residence in the eKukhanyeni area near Verulam.

The trucks were meant to be carrying water for delivery to communities.

Investigators were in the area after reports that several truck drivers were spotted in the area offloading diesel.

Two municipal employees were arrested and a case of theft was opened at the Inanda police station.

eThekwini municipality's head of the integrity and investigations unit Jimmy Ngcobo commended the team of investigators.

“Further investigations will be conducted in this area as it is alleged that diesel is frequently offloaded there,” he said.

Ngcobo said the stolen diesel is resold.

“We will not allow employees to steal municipal resources. We urge the community to report fraud and corruption cases to be investigated.”

The suspects were caught with twelve 25l containers of offloaded diesel, which amounts to 300l, he added.

The city said in the 2024/2025 financial year there were 181 fraud and corruption cases and 126 infrastructure theft cases. There are 25 active criminal cases.

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