A BUS owner has been transporting pupils in Tsakane and surrounding areas in more than 20 buses.
But cops said his bus company didn't buy the diesel it used.
Three municipal trucks, one of which was found in his yard, used to allegedly steal diesel from the Ekurhuleni Municipality to sell to his company.
For a 20-litre, investigations revealed the company would pay R350 and the two officials from the municipality were allegedly making money from this illegal activity.
On Tuesday afternoon, 19 December, eight suspects including two officials, the bus owner and his five workers were bust for theft of state diesel.
The three trucks were allegedly stealing diesel from the municipality's depot and selling it to the bus company in Withok Estates near Tsakane.
The officials from Ekurhuleni Municipality were arrested in a joint sting operation conducted by the EMPD, SAPS’ National Crime Intelligence, Multi-Dimensional Organised Crime (MDOC) unit and the various private security companies.
The trucks with 300 and 200-litre capacity were allegedly offloading diesel every day.
The elderly bus owner just told Daily Sun he wasn't aware of the illegal activities.
"I'm not here most of the time, and I understand this started in November," he said.
ALSO READ: Marshalltown fire inquiry: Commissioner to know his fate!
Ekurhuleni Metro police commissioner applauded all the teams involved in the operation including the whistle-blowers for great work.
"The arrests followed an ongoing intelligence-driven operation that has been surveilling the city’s vehicles, mainly trucks, which had been spotted on several instances off-loading diesel at the facility, which is a private bus depot," said Ekurhuleni municipal police commissioner, Isaac Jabulani Mapiyeye.
"Although it remains unclear how much diesel had been stolen through this illegal operation, the city is busy reconciling its figures to determine the amount of the loss it suffered.
"The modus operandi was that the trucks would fill up at the municipal depots each morning only to go and off load the fuel at the private facility and get paid for this. They would then return the vehicles empty and re-fill the next morning and do the same thing over and over again."
Commissioner Mapiyeye said: “Foul play has always been suspected because of the rate at which some of our vehicles were refilling fuel on a regular basis. The municipal police commissioner confirms that more arrests are imminent as investigations continue.
“We will not rest until all those who are involved in such illicit acts are behind bars. This is public money and money that we desperately need to provide quality and sustainable services to the community of Ekurhuleni," said Mapiyeye.
Anyone with information on criminal activities can report such at the SAPS CrimeStop hotline on 10111 or the City of Ekurhuleni Fraud Hot Line on 0800 102 201.
