Mpe warns of impersonators soliciting donations

Capricorn District Municipality (CDM) Executive Mayor, John Mpe was summoned to appear in the Polo­kwane Regional Court last Friday to testify against an alleged fraudster who allegedly claimed that he was Mpe and extorted donations from a local businessperson of the city. The accused did not plea to the charge and the case was postponed and his bail was extended without Mpe being called to testify.
After the court proceedings, Mpe addressed the media at CDM’s head office in the city and disclosed that the accused is Abel Maleka, who is unknown to him. “A local businessman approached me and mentioned that he had made a donation of
R19 000 to CDM at my request but did not receive any acknowledgement. I realised that somebody was using my name for fraudulent purposes and the matter was reported to the Police for investigation that led to the arrest,” Mpe said.
Mpe said that he suspected that Maleka was a member of a syndicate and confirmed that he intends to register cases of impersonation and defamation of character with the Police soon.
”The names of other mayors and MECs were allegedly also used in the same scam,” Mpe said.
According to Jabu Masondo, CDM’s Communications Manager, the accused operated a well-orchestrated scheme.
“He allegedly extorted money on numerous instances by impersonating the Executive Mayor under false pretences of helping destitute and downtrodden sections of society. His modus operandi was impersonating the Executive Mayor’s voice and request money that will purportedly be used to donate to poor households or pay for some supposed logistics such as transport to events. On dictates of greed, the accused would creatively target the same victim for multiple times with a different tactic,” Masondo explained.
Mpe reiterated that CDM will not tolerate any corruption and fraudulent activities and called on the public to report any such activities on CDM’s anti-fraud hotline at 0800 20 50 53.
“I will personally testify in cases where I am required to do so,” Mpe said and urged businesspeople to be vigilant and not to be victims of this scam.
“Capricorn District Municipality and myself personally, take fraud and related crimes in a very serious light and we should not let anyone abuse my name for criminal, selfish ends”, he concluded.
The date of Maleka’s next appearance in court was not available at time of going to print.

Story & photos: BARRY VILJOEN
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