Hawks returns documents seized at GTM
This was confirmed by the spokesman for the municipality, Mr Thabiso Mokoena. “We received back the documents recently, they were unlawfully taken from the municipality.The North Gauteng High Court ruled in favour of GTM. I don’t know if they will be taken again or what. The Hawks are the ones that can clarify that, not us," he said.
BURGERSFORT -The documents that were seized from the Greater Tubatse Municipality (GTM) by the Hawks in July last year has been returned by the special police unit.
This was confirmed by the spokesman for the municipality, Mr Thabiso Mokoena. “We received back the documents recently, they were unlawfully taken from the municipality.The North Gauteng High Court ruled in favour of GTM. I don’t know if they will be taken again or what. The Hawks are the ones that can clarify that, not us,” he said.
The Hawks descended on GTM on July 15 last year, searching the offices and seizing documents. The latter were taken in order to verify whether the allegations of corruption and maladministration in the municipality were true or not.
The municipality responded by sending its legal team to fight the decision in the High Court. The GTM argued that the due channels in instituting the investigation were not properly followed and that made the Hawks’ investigation illegal.
Spokesman for the Hawks, Mr Hangwani Mulaudzi, told Steelburger/Lydenburg News that the documents had been returned.
“We returned the documents but that does not mean we have stopped with our investigation, we are still busy with it,” Mulaudzi said.
Corruption, maladministration and financial mismanagement amounting to violation of the Municipal Finance Management Act and supply-chain policies, have been at the centre of the municipality’s crisis in the previous year.
