FIVE suspects, including a former manager at Mahikeng Municipality, are in hot water over a R140 million unlawful land sale in Mahikeng, North West.
Four of the five suspects handed themselves over to the Hawks on Wednesday, 25 October and appeared in the Molopo Magistrates Court.
The court postponed the case against Lekitlane Mutsi (65), Brian Moholo (66), Tshiamo Moholo (34), Johannes Petrus Van Der Merwe (44) and Barbara Christiane Van Der Merwe (47) to Friday, 8 December for the arrest of the remaining suspects.
Lekitlane was granted R150 000 bail as he appeared before the same court on Tuesday, 24 October, while the other four handed themselves to the Hawks on Wednesday.
Brian was granted R150 000 bail, Tshiamo received R50 000 bail, Johannes R50 000, and Barbara Christiene R20 000.
According to the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) in the North West, their case is linked to that of Henny Smit (70), the former municipality manager of Mahikeng Local Municipality, who is also out on R150 000 bail after he was bust on Tuesday, 10 October.
NPA spokesman Henry Mamothame said their arrest and court appearance are related to the unlawful sale of municipal land to the value of R144 million without council approval, and further ignoring the competitive bidding process.
He said it's alleged that on 31 October 2007, Smit illegally agreed with a company to sell the municipality's land.
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“The said company only paid R5 million as a deposit to purchase the land. Investigations reveal that the company was liquidated in December 2011 without paying the municipality the outstanding debt. The assets of this company were subsequently sold to another company for an amount of R16 million at an auction,” he said.
Mamothame said that in April 2012, the new owners of the land changed their company name, and between 2013 and 2015, they sold and transferred portions of the land to five other companies and a trust account.
North Wests Hawks spokeswoman Lieutenant-Colonel Tinyiko Mathebula said their investigations revealed that directors and shareholders of these companies had links to the company that was liquidated.
She said it was further revealed that the company that bought the land from the auction entered into an unlawful agreement with the Social Housing Regulatory Authority (SHRA) to build 2 400 units valued at more than R301 million.
“Investigations also revealed that an amount of over R550 000 was paid as gratification to Brian Moholo, and it was further traced to a purchase of a house for his daughter, Bontle Moholo. This money was paid through a trust whose trustees are Johannes and Barbara Van Der Merwe,” she said.
She said more arrests are expected to be made in this case, and investigations are completed.
