Great Kei municipal officials suspended after safe stolen

Four Great Kei municipal officials have been suspended for their alleged involvement in the theft of an unmounted steel safe believed to have contained R500,000.

The officials, comprising two senior managers, a traffic official and a cashier, were meant to appear before a disciplinary hearing on Thursday, but they all submitted sick notes — something municipal manager Lawrence Mambila said raised questions.

The four, whose names are known to the Dispatch, could not be identified as they could not be contacted at the time of writing on Friday. The police are also investigating the matter.

The suspensions were confirmed on Friday by Mambila, who said common among the charges was gross negligence and non-adherence to controls and procedures.

He said there was more on their charge sheets, but that he was “not ready to speak about such other charges as investigations are still ongoing and doing so might jeopardise such process”. 

Mambila said the four were negligent in that they had allegedly failed to bank the money paid to the municipality since March until the brazen theft of the safe in July.

The matter has since been taken over from Komga police by the Hawks, Mambila said.

However, this could not be independently verified as Hawks spokesperson Brigadier Hangwani Mulaudzi could not be reached for comment on Friday.

Insiders previously told the Dispatch the money which was stolen along with the safe amounted to about R500,000.

Mambila said it was “lower than that according to our records”, but refused to divulge the actual figure, saying it would be revealed when the probe was completed.  

In July, Mambila told the Dispatch he did not understand why there were large amounts of money stored in the facility as he had instructed the money to be deposited on a daily basis in the bank across the street.

At the time he said part of the investigations would centre on why the money was kept there for all this time, “because according to my instruction, which is known by all, the money is supposed to be banked on a daily basis”.

On Friday he said: “It still did not make any sense why money was kept there for so long and not banked. The lockdown is no excuse because banks were open and emergency services were operational.”

After the July burglary, signs of forced entry were noted on a wooden front door to the traffic department, but Mambila on Friday said a burglarproof door leading to where the safe was, had been left unlocked on the day.

“This security door is always locked at the end of the day, but on that day it was not.

“If it had been locked, the person or people who broke in would not have had access to where the safe was, and that is one of the things under investigation.

“Also this thing of four people, living in different places, all falling sick on the same day when they were supposed to attend a DC hearing is something we want scrutinised.

“We are not questioning their sickness as we are not medical doctors, but the coincidence that they could all be sick on the same day is suspect — hence we want such medical certificates scrutinised, and checked for authenticity.”

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