Private investigator ropes in cops for help
Kathorus-based private investigator Thabo Buzwa has approached the police to help him recover the missing R46-million allegedly owed to municipal employees retrenched by the Germiston Town Council in 1999.
Accompanied by some of the aging former Germiston Town Council employees, Buzwa laid a charge with Col. JD Botha, the head of crime detectives at the Katlehong North SAPS, on January 21.
The group has urged the police to investigate and recover the missing millions and bring those guilty of misappropriating the funds to book.
Buzwa described how his firm’s 10-year probe into the case led him to the identities of a few senior executives and managers (whose names are known to Kathorus MAIL) who were in charge of human resources and the municipality’s payroll.
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“Our investigation into the matter was narrowed down to a handful of people,” Buzwa explained.
Two of these employees, a personnel manager, and a paymaster, are now retired, but Buzwa believes their roles as senior municipal employees must have given them insight into the 1999 retrenchment processes and procedures followed at the time.
Approached by Kathorus MAIL to explain the retrenchment process in 1999, the former personnel manager, Dan Hlahatsi, described the process as flawless and without any incident. He added that his involvement in the process went as far as forwarding the names of the retrenched workers to the payroll department and other role players in ensuring everything concerning the retrenchment process was done according to the rules.
Buzwa said he believed even though Hlahatsi thought everything was going smoothly, some of the retrenchment processes may not have been followed correctly.
“The fact that some of the retrenched workers were paid everything that was due to them and others were not, proves that something went wrong at some point,” said Buzwa.
Hlahatsi denied any wrongdoing on the part of his department in facilitating the process and said people employed in the related departments were senior black municipal officials who were responsible for the employment of employees on the municipal payroll.
“When the retrenchment packages were paid out, I believed everything was done above board,” said Hlahatsi.
He, however, admitted that not all the retrenched workers were paid in full and pointed out that several of the retrenched workers were, in fact, re-employed.
Most of the retrenched former municipal employees are now old and frail.
Louis Malaza of Katlehong told Kathorus MAIL he worked as an internal audit clerk at the old Katlehong municipal offices before the entire staff was transferred and absorbed into the old Germiston City Council before the retrenchments.
Malaza said he was among the 366 municipal employees from Katlehong who were paid only a portion of their contributions to the municipality’s retirement fund. He said the estimated R46-m which was the portion of the municipality’s contribution to be paid to the employees’ retirement fund was never paid after they were dismissed.
“There were over a 1 000 black and white municipal employees who were retrenched from their various posts by the old municipality. Some opted for voluntary retrenchments and were paid in full and left soon thereafter,” said Malaza, who admitted that some of the details about this case evade his memory.
“It’s difficult to remember everything,” he said.
Buzwa explained that since he has been involved in the case, a number of the elderly claimants have died and it is now their children and grandchildren who have joined the fight to recover what rightfully belongs to them. He said he did everything in his power to draw the attention of high-ranking politicians to the plight of the retrenched workers, to no avail.
The township sleuth said it was the alleged defrauding of the beneficiaries of the fund and their families that had him continue investigating the case.
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“Nothing will bring me and my team more pleasure than seeing this case taken to court and those guilty of the theft of the money sent to prison,” Buzwa said.
Botha confirmed that a case has been opened by the police and that it will soon be transferred to the Commercial Crimes Unit for further investigation.
“Once the matter has been handed over to the Commercial Crimes Unit, they will decide the course the case will take. Depending, of course, on what the team of investigators are able to dig up on the way.”
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