Local Government, Environmental Affairs and Development Planning
With reference to the forensic investigation undertaken by the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) in the Oudtshoorn Municipality that revealed that there were at least 132 transgressions of the Local Government: Municipal Finance Management Act (MFMA) and various other pieces of legislation during the period that led to the mandatory intervention in terms of section 139 of the MFMA, including two cases of alleged corruption and eight of fraud, what are the relevant details?
[1] The Provincial Executive invoked an intervention on 31 July 2015 in the Oudtshoorn Municipality in terms of section 139(1)(b) of the Constitution, after which the Provincial Forensic Services (PFS) was commissioned to conduct a forensic investigation into allegations of irregularities at the Municipality.
The PFS gathered a substantive compendium of evidence that supports a prima facie case against certain individuals and I duly authorised the PFS to proceed with instituting criminal charges against those persons implicated.
The process is currently at a very sensitive stage and divulging details now would compromise proceedings and may lead to prejudice against those implicated.
Further details will be made available once this has been completed.
