Court allowes mayor back in his office

Today (Friday, 5 February) the executive mayor, Kgotso Khumalo, has moved back to his office at the Dan Tloome municipal building after the court yesterday ordered relaxation of his bail conditions. He is also allowed back to the council chambers.

This verdict came after numerous court appearances spanning over four months. In October last year, the Hawks charged Khumalo and two other employees of the municipality, Cyril Henry and Mohau Shuping, with theft and fraud.  Captain Tlangelani Rikhotso, the Hawks’ provincial spokesperson in the North West, said that the arrests emanate from a commercial crime investigation into a trust account. Around R5 million intended for the J.B Marks municipality was deposited, but the funds were never declared to the auditor general.

According to Mandla Tawana, the mayoral spokesperson, the magistrate concluded that the previous bail conditions had infringed on the mayor’s rights: “… his rights not to be able to perform his duties which include attending council meetings and conducting oversight as political head of the institution.” Although he is allowed back to the Dan Tloome building, the court warned Khumalo not to intimidate the witnesses in the case.

Tawana stated, “The executive mayor appreciates the wheels of justice and will respect the order made by the court.”

It seems that the mayor recently also came under pressure from the Interim Provincial Committee (IPC) coordinator of the ANC in the North West, Hlomani Chauke who addressed a letter to the mayor on the 27th of January asking him to step down. 

Chauke states: “The office of the ANC IPC coordinator hereby gives you [Kgotso Khumalo] 48 hours’ notice to step aside as the executive mayor of the J.B Marks local municipality until such time that the criminal case is concluded and your names are cleared by the court of law.”

Tawana  dismissed the letter as fake: “We will treat the letter as fake news as it has never been sent to the executive mayor.” According to him, Khumalo has had informal meetings with Chauke.

The DA strongly opposed the relaxation of the bail condition because they are concerned that it will allow the mayor access to information and possibly tamper with the ongoing investigation. They also submitted another motion of no confidence against Khumalo: “The repeated efforts of the ANC to have Khumalo step aside further justifies the DA’s motion of no confidence against him”, said Chris Hattingh, DA councillor at J.B Marks municipality.

Hattingh finally concluded, “Considering the entrenched constitutional rights of every accused, the DA can only hope that this case will be dealt with in the criminal justice system smoothly, thoroughly and efficiently and that we will not see another Stalingrad approach which has become associated with ‘Radical Economic Transformation’ accused.”