The 51-year-old Kholiwe Moses Janda, accused of defrauding the J.B Marks Municipality of R1.7 million, will appear in court again next month.
According to the NW Hawks’ spokesperson, Capt. Tlangelani Rikhotso, Janda’s case will be before the Potchefstroom magistrates’ court for further investigation. He says additional arrests have not been ruled out.
The suspect was released on R100 000 bail on 5 February, following his arrest in January for his alleged involvement in the missing R1.7 million from J.B. Marks’s coffers. The matter was then postponed to 5 March, pending further investigation.
According to Rikhotso, approximately R1.7 million was allegedly deposited into the suspect’s business account in May 2018. “The matter was subsequently reported to the Hawks and the investigation ensued.”
Rikhotso says the investigations by the Serious Commercial Crime investigation unit of the Hawks revealed that the suspect’s company had rendered no services to warrant the municipality’s alleged payment. She added that he was subsequently arrested at his home in Soweto on 24 January 2019.
Last July, the Potchefstroom Herald reported that three employees from the municipality had been suspended after the money went missing. At that time, Willie Maphosa, the council spokesperson, said “this should be seen only as a manner of allowing investigations to proceed and never as prejudicial to the employees concerned,” he stressed.
The municipality could not explain how such a huge amount of money had gone through without the authorisation of the chief financial officer.
At the time, a member of the public had tipped the newspaper off that the Hawks had conducted a raid at the municipality. The source shed light on what had transpired. “R1.7 million was deposited into some business account in the Gauteng province. After that, the recipient of the money cashed the amount, closed the bank account and deregistered the CIPRO (Companies and Intellectual Property Commission) account.”
