….for robbery suspects
QWA QWA – A case in which four men are accused of stealing half a million rand in rates and service charge payments from Maluti A phofung MAP on Friday, June 1 this year has been postponed to November 14 for further investigation.
Magistrate Mbuyeselo Khapha on October 30 ruled out the accused’s defence lawyer Skosana Kobeli plea for no further postponement saying there had been many deferments already.
Khapa also argued that that further delay would hold back the future of his clients.
Thabang Tsotso who was working at Maluti A Phofung as a security guard, Lekhotla Mokwai, Lukas Shongwe and Nape Motloung were all MAP employees in the electricity department who are alleged to be involved in the disappearance of R500 000 collected from residents for services and rates.
The four had been released on bail of R10 000 each initially although this was reduced to R4 000 following mitigation.
The money disappeared from MAP municipal offices in Qwa Qwa on Friday, June 1. MAP had encouraged residents to pay their debts and came up with a debt relief strategy where residents would pay half their debt, and the other 50 percent would be written off by the municipality.
The deadline for payments had been set for May 31, and many people complied, while some could not. In June, the president of Dikwankwetla party Moeketsi Lebesa attributed the missing funds to a burglary after officials failed to deposit the money which had been paid before deadline into the bank.
He said the safe in which the money was kept was drilled into, and suspected the heist to be an inside job. “Under no circumstances can one hold half a million so loosely in the office. If the bank is closed by the time one has reconciled his takings, it is sensible to call one of the many security companies here to keep the money in their vaults. Paying them to do so is better than all that money being stolen,” he said.
The then Municipal Manager Stephen Kau reported the theft to Phuthaditjhaba police resulting in six cashiers being arrested and spending the night of Saturday, June 2 in jail. Moloi Moloi appeared for the state.