By OBAKENG MAJE

Beleaguered JB Marks mayor, Kgotso Khumalo along with other two accused, are expected to appear at the Potchefstroom Magistrate’s Court on Friday. 

The Director for Municipal Services and Local Economic Development, Cyril Hendry and The Caretaker for Sports Facilities in the municipality, Mohau Shuping are linked to multimillion-rand theft and fraud at the municipality.

It is alleged that the North West University and the Programme for Community Development paid about R5 million into a trust account of an attorney for the use of specific projects by the municipality.

The attorney was then allegedly given instructions to effect various payments, which includes a R208 000 mayoral committee contribution towards the funeral of the late North West MEC for Agriculture, Duma Ndleleni who passed away on 23 November 2018.

According to the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) regional spokesperson, Henry Mamothame, it was later discovered that R200 000 was allegedly paid directly into the account of one of the accused.

“From this amount, R64 218 was allegedly paid to an institution where Khumalo’s relative was a student. It is alleged that false invoices were generated to effect more fictitious payments. Further to this act of criminality, Khumalo allegedly instructed the attorney to make payment to an NGO which did not exist,” Mamothame said.

The trio is facing eight charges of theft and fraud.

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Additional reporting: www.iol.co.za

The J.B. Marks municipality was in court today for an urgent application against the provincial government’s earlier decision to place the municipality under administration. The application in Mahikeng high court was dismissed with costs.

The J.B. Marks municipality was in court today for an urgent application against the provincial government’s earlier decision to place the municipality under administration.

The application in Mahikeng high court was dismissed with costs.

“Council was taken by surprise on the appointment of the administrator since there had been a mutual understanding that the Province would come and report back following the engagement of joint technical teams that were set up to investigate areas where the Province would intervene if so required,” said William Maphosa, municipal spokesperson, about the reason the municipality challenged the decision in court.

Chris Hattingh, a DA councillor in the municipality warned of the outcome before the court case.

“The DA is of the opinion that this urgent High Court application, which is desperately pursued by the ANC and some ANC aligned councillors, is bound to fail with substantial costs to taxpayers. There appears to be no regard that money spent on frivolous court cases are at the cost of the taxpayer, the ANC cannot continue to handle the public purse as their own piggy-bank. The DA is now in full support of an investigative intervention led by a competent, suitably qualified and experienced administrator,” he said in an earlier statement.

This was after the DA asked for a special council meeting on 5 September to dispute the authorisation allegedly given by the JB Marks Council to approach the High Court in an urgent application.

In response, Maphosa noted that everyone was taken aback by the DA’s sudden change of mind in this regard. The proposal to go the legal route, in fact, came from the DA itself through their member, Mr. H J Moolman after they had requested a brief caucus during the previous council meeting. We challenge the DA and the media to listen to the verbal recordings of the proceedings of the meeting and they will have this fact confirmed.

In the council meeting, Moolman noted that the council cannot simply ignore a decision taken by the provincial government and that if council believes that the decision to place the municipality under administration is wrong it must get a legal opinion before going to court.

According to him, this legal opinion should have been served before the council for consideration, before a decision to approach the court was made.

The decision to place the municipality under administration still stands.

Source: http://www.potchherald.co.za

The running of the JB Marks municipality, which has been at the centre of corruption allegations, will be taken over by the provincial government.

North West provincial government has confirmed that the JB Marks municipality has been placed under administration following a decision from the province’s executive committee, News24 reports.

The JB Marks municipality was formed following a merger of the Tlokwe and Ventersdorp municipalities, which caused protests – one of which saw the Ventersdorp municipal traffic building torched – and was opposed by Ventersdorp residents.

The Democratic Alliance (DA) legally opposed the merger in the high court in Pretoria.

The municipality has been plagued by corruption allegations which saw it undergo a complete shut down at the end of last year, over issues including its failure to deliver on a N14 development project promised to them since 2006.