Three employees of the John Taolo Gaetsewe District Municipality in Kuruman will appear in court on several charges.

The trio – two men and one woman – were arrested on Monday 29 June at their workplace by members of the Serious Corruption Investigation team of the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation (Hawks) based in Kathu. They are aged 38, 56 and 58 respectively.

Hawks spokesperson Lieutenant Colonel Tebogo Thebe said the arrests were the culmination of an investigation undertaken by the office following allegations of corruption, fraud, cyber fraud, cyber forgery, uttering and contravention of the Local Government Municipal Finance Management Act (MFMA).

It is alleged that the trio worked together to alter the results of a competency assessment undertaken by an external party at the request of the municipality in line with applicable legislation. The municipality had advertised the position of Director of Community Services on 16 October 2022. The competency assessment results were allegedly changed to favour an undeserving candidate, whose results came back as “basic” but were changed to “competent”.

The accused will appear before the Kuruman Magistrates’ Court on Tuesday 30 June, where they are expected to apply for bail.

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