Burglars steal files and laptop from KwaDukuza finance office
Councillors were furious that such an important building of the municipality could be broken into, particularly considering the recent renewal of a security company's contract.
Several items were stolen from KwaDukuza Municipality’s (KDM) finance offices during a robbery on Monday night.
This was revealed by KDM chief financial officer, Shamir Rajcoomar, during a brief presentation to council on Tuesday morning.
The full extent of what had been taken and how the robbers had entered the building were still under investigation by KwaDukuza Saps at the time of print.
Rajcoomar said what he could confirm was that a laptop and some files were taken.
It is unclear whether any personal information of KwaDukuza residents is at risk. KDM had not responded to queries in time for publication.
The news was met with bipartisan frustration from councillors and council leadership, who demanded a full investigation.
“It doesn’t make sense how this can happen and I agree that it needs to be taken very seriously. This is a building that simply has to be secured because of the strategic information it holds for KDM,” said African National Congress councillor, Sanele Mthiyane.
Democratic Alliance councillor Privi Makhan agreed and pointed to a series of previous municipal robberies throughout KwaDukuza.
“This is deeply, deeply concerning. The contract for ProSecure (who secure both municipal assets and provide bodyguarding services) has just been extended despite five KwaDukuza libraries being broken into during their last term,” she said.
Security costs have long been a controversial item in council, where specific expense details have consistently been requested by councillors but have never been forthcoming.
When presented to council, the bodyguarding and asset security costs are presented as a single figure rather than as individual line items.
This has drawn the ire of opposition councillors for months, while repeated queries from the Courier also proved ineffective last year.
The budgeted cost for these security services is just under R25.5-million for the next financial year.
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