WESTERN CAPE, December 23 (ANA) – The George Magistrate’s Court found a former municipal manager guilty for swindling the Oudtshoorn municipality of over R2-million, the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation (the Hawks) said on Friday.
Spokesperson Captain Lloyd Ramovha said 60-year-old Martin Noël Pietersen would learn his fate on March 30.
Ramovha said Pietersen was arrested in August 2013. The charges against Pietersen emanated from five charges of contravention of section 173 of the Municipal Finance Management Act 56 of 2003.
“It is alleged that from October 2010 to June 2011, Pietersen misused his authority by arbitrarily authorising wasteful expenditure in favour of IBR Consultants, an entity he was allegedly linked to, was appointed under suspicious circumstances, without following due Supply Chain Management procedures,” Ramovha said.
National Hawks head, Lieutenant General Mthandazo Ntlemeza, expressed his elation at the ruling.
“If corruption is left unchecked, it is capable of eroding good governance in the country, thereby rendering our hard earned democracy ineffectual and depriving people on the ground of the most basic of services,” Ntlemeza said in a statement.
“This is only the beginning, we are buoyed by this ruling and we shall continue to discharge our mandate with assurance and vigour.”
– African News Agency
