File
The Hawks in the Northern Cape welcomed the sentencing on Tuesday of the former municipal manager of Karoo Hoogland Municipality, Louis Nothnagel, for theft.
The 63-year-old Nothnagel was sentenced on Tuesday in the Kimberley Commercial Crimes court to four years direct imprisonment, and was also ordered to pay back R500,000 to the state.
Hawks provincial spokesperson, Lieutenant Colonel Tebogo Thebe, said he was convicted in July last year on 26 counts of theft and 53 counts of contravening the Municipal Finance Management Act.
A co-accused, a former chief financial officer, died shortly after he was arrested in February 2013.
The court heard that Nothnagel and the late CFO had colluded to pay each other performance bonuses without Council approval and in contravention of the MFMA.
Fifty-three-year-old Anri Botha, the wife of the late CFO, was convicted on an alternative count for theft and money laundering.
Thebe said she was sentenced to five years imprisonment and ordered to pay back R200,000 to the state.
The head of the Hawks in the Northern Cape major-general Stephen Mabuela commended the work of his members and the prosecution.
“Local government corruption has to be arrested at some stage. This conviction sends the right message,” he said.
