From the mayor and other employees whose salaries were paid into the wrong bank accounts, to contractors who have never done a day’s work but who were nonetheless paid, the Matjhabeng Municipality is the Free State champion when it comes to corruption investigations.
According to a report submitted to the Free State Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (Cogta), the Hawks are investigating at least nine cases of corruption in Matjhabeng. This amounts to the most cases being investigated at one single municipality in the Free State.
Although the report was issued in May this year, Capt. Christopher Singo, spokesperson for the Hawks, says that no-one implicated in any of the cases mentioned in the report has been arrested yet.
This report includes:
- The mysterious disappearance of Welkom’s mayoral chain. The chain, which is worth more than R20 million, disappeared during Nkosinjani Speelman’s tenure.
- A total of 69 municipal workers and Speelman’s salaries were fraudulently paid into an unspecified bank account in January 2020. An official in the pay office conducted an internal audit and determined that the bank details of the 69 employees and Speelman had illegally been changed on the municipality’s payroll.
Most of the workers’ accounts are with Standard Bank. Their money was deposited into a Bidvest account. The municipality suffered a loss of R3,5 million.
- In May 2021, a whistle blower reported alleged corruption by Speelman and Zingisa Tindleni, the acting municipal manager at the time.
It was reported that Speelman and Tindleni appointed a company that had to maintain the sewage treatment works. They were reportedly shareholders. The company was appointed for five years, and the municipality lost R200 million due to the appointment.
- A company was appointed by Matjhabeng to build a stormwater system in Nyakallong, Allanridge. The contractor was paid while no stormwater system was ever built.
An official in the office of the auditor general reported this alleged corruption of R15,8 million to the Hawks.
- A company’s contract, which provided security services to the municipality for three years from 2009, was renewed on a monthly basis until March 2019, when it was finally terminated. The municipality did not pay the company. The company approached the court, and the court ordered the municipality to pay the outstanding money.
The municipality paid the full outstanding amount to a lawyer, who had to pay it to the company. Apparently, the lawyer only paid part of the money, and the rest was used illegally.
The municipality then had to pay the amount again, and suffered a loss of R2 million.
The Hawks are investigating allegations that the same happened with money transferred to this law firm to pay Eskom and Sedibeng Water.
- The Hawks are investigating alleged corruption after a complaint was lodged against Speelman.
The complainant alleges that he had approached Speelman to start a driving school project. A tender was drawn up, but Speelman told him that he should not submit the tender – rather, he would ensure that the complainant received the tender. To ensure that he is awarded the tender, the complainant had to hand over 70% of the shares in his company to Speelman.
The complainant refused to do so, and the tender was awarded to someone else.
The Hawks have not yet been able to determine how much money is involved in this alleged corruption.
