It’s almost seven months since a municipal-owned tractor-loader-backhoe (TLB) was stolen, but this much-needed piece of heavy machinery is still nowhere to be found.

The theft was reported to the police, and two municipal officials were arrested and charged with theft.

Despite the arrest of the pair, no further details about the circumstances of the theft and the machine’s whereabouts have been released.

According to City of Ekurhuleni spokesperson Zweli Dlamini, authorities are still trying to track down the TLB, stolen in December last year, from the city’s depot in Brakpan.

He said the two officials were released on bail and remain suspended pending the investigation.

Background

The Heidelberg Nigel Heraut previously reported that information gathered suggested that the driver of the TLB was instructed by his superiors to drive it from Brakpan to a private construction site in Vosloorus for work.

The people he was assigned to do the work for reportedly told him that they hired the TLB from his superiors, and this immediately raised a red flag.

The driver made further enquiries and even engaged his superiors, and eventually discovered that the work he was assigned to do had nothing to do with his official duties.

The driver decided to stop working and left the site after his superiors had reportedly arranged that the TLB would be taken to the nearby municipal offices for safekeeping. But, thereafter, it went missing.

Speaking during the arrest of the officials, MMC for Roads and Transport Management Andile Mngwevu, said: “We are going to pull all stops to ensure that the missing machinery is recovered and all those involved in this act of criminality are brought to book.”

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