Three employees of the John Taolo Gaetsewe (JTG) District Municipality in Kuruman were granted bail when they appeared before the Kuruman Magistrate’s Court this morning. The case was postponed for transfer to the Serious Commercial Crimes Court.

Kagisho Klaas Teise (current Municipal Manager of JTG) and Motshabi Wilberforce Molusi (manager of the Project Management Unit) were granted R10 000 bail each, whilst Lerato Agreeneth Morris (manager of Council Administration) was released on R5 000 bail.

The court appearance followed their arrest on Monday 29 June at their workplace by members of the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation (Hawks) based in Kathu.

Spokesperson for the Hawks, Lieutenant Colonel Tebogo Thebe, said on Monday that the arrests were the culmination of an investigation 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”.

Hawks spokesperson Warrant Officer Nomthandazo Mnisi said the case was postponed to 31 August for transfer to the Serious Commercial Crimes Court.

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