Buffalo City mayor granted bail after appearing in court for fraud.
01 Feb 2016 | Admin Author
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Buffalo City Metro executive mayor, Zukiswa Ncitha, has been granted bail after appearing in court on Monday on a charges related to a tender for the memorial service of former president Nelson Mandela, issued by the Municipality.
Ncita, her deputy, Themba Tinta and Speaker, Lulela Simon-Nzela, four other officials and two business owners, face charges of money-laundering and procurement fraud involving millions of rands.
State prosecutor Advocate Daniso Ketani did not oppose bail but insisted on clear and strict bail conditions.
Magistrate Leon Kemp accepted the bail of R10 000 for 4 of the accused with one of the business owners out on R5 000.
This follows the mayor and the officials handing themselves over to police investigating wing, The Hawks this morning.
The Hawks have been investigating the municipality since February this year over a R10 million transportation tender for the Nelson Mandela Memorial in December last year.
The first accused in the case Mzwandile Sokwali and his wife Busisiwe Boti, owner of Victory Tickets 750 CC the company that won the tender also appeared in court.
The couple was arrested on charges of fraud and theft counts in February and are currently out on bail of R100 000 each.
They will all be back in court again on the First of September.
Meanwhile, the ANC in the Eastern Cape says it has noted Ncita's arrest.
ANC provincial spokesperson, Mlibo Qoboshiyane, says they stand by their initial position that all ANC members who might have information on the matter are urged to cooperate fully with the law enforcement agencies.
He says as the ANC they maintain their "clear commitment to clean governance and administration."
However, Qoboshiyane says the presumption of innocence until proven otherwise by the court of law must remain.
The DA in Buffalo City has welcomed the arrests.
"Previously, the DA noted with concern that Buffalo City Metro mayor, Zukiswa Ncitha, ordered armed men to prevent Hawks investigators from talking to staff in the City Hall about the multi-million rand scandal," said DA caucus spokesperson, Lance Weyer.
"The ANC regional secretary, Pumlani Mkolo, a man implicated in the scandal himself, was also allowed to attend the ANC caucus meeting and instruct ANC councillors to stop a forensic investigation into the matter and barred any discussion on the matter in council. We also complained that council documents relating to the matter were unreasonably classified in an attempt to hide information from the public," he said.
Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University political analyst, Dr Joleen Steyn-Kotze, says clean governance is a key issue for municipalities.
"Essentially what the arrest of the Hawks signifies is the ANC trying to send a message that yes we are serious about cleaning up government, making sure officials are held accounatable. But, on the other hand one also has to look at the grander scale issues of irregularities and corruption within the national level and off-course the cloud of Nkandla hangs very heavily over that as well," she added.
