Walls closing in on those implicated in corruption allegations at Emfuleni Municipality

Added: 2026-06-03

[00:00:01]For years, the Mfuleni municipality went from one scandal to the next. A municipality drowning in debt and plagued by service delivery failures.

[00:00:10]Now, a case of fraud involving an alleged service provider who allegedly siphoned money from municipal coffers through a scheme targeting residents seeking relief on their accounts. See.

[00:00:23]>> It is alleged that the accused defrauded the municipality by pretending to be to be an independent agent submitting claims to the municipality on behalf of unsuspecting victims. After receiving the payment from the municipality, the money was never paid to to the intended beneficiaries.

[00:00:44]>> The development comes as the murder of former Mfuleni finance official Martha Rantsoufu is now being investigated by the political killings task team.

[00:00:54]Rantsoufu was shot and killed in March after probing an alleged scheme involving municipal debt being written off in exchange for bribes.

[00:01:04]The court heard that Jenitha van Niekerk is believed to possess information relating to the murder of the late whistleblower.

[00:01:11]>> It's interesting because uh this I think appearance of this particular accused was very secretive.

[00:01:18]We didn't know about it.

[00:01:20]And and also when I when I made contact with the family, I understood from the brother that they too didn't know. So for me, it shows how um you know, uh the PKTT as as we understand the people that are investigating this particular uh matter are meaningful in terms of this particular investigation and they don't want to be deterred. And we really do welcome the fact that uh bail has been denied.

[00:01:46]>> The allegations come as Mfuleni continues to grapple with a 16 million rand ghost fleet scandal. Investigators found glaring procurement irregularities including duplicate engine numbers and signed delivery documents for vehicles that never arrived or can't be accounted for. Yet, municipal officials insist there is no connection.

[00:02:09]>> In our understanding and in our knowledge, these two things are not related and the court is still going to prove that. And I can tell you now where we stand that these two are unrelated matter and the matter of the 16 million we've dealt with, people are being charged, the cases are being finalized and they will pronounce at the logical conclusion of the process.

[00:02:28]>> For civil society, however, the cases point to a deeper culture of impunity.

[00:02:34]>> The gumph is a lot and people are not held accountable.

[00:02:39]And I think for me there is absolutely no care even in the Emfuleni Municipality about Martha Rans office death. You know, they're very blasé in my own opinion and I think as as defender of democracy, that's what we understood when we went to visit the Rans office family that the municipality is just so blasé about the death of Martha.

[00:03:01]>> Just days ago, the ANC removed its mayor, Sipho Nkosi Dabede, citing worsening service delivery failures, governance concerns and growing public frustration, adding another layer to the instability.

[00:03:15]Jeniffer van Rensburg returns to court on the 23rd of June. For Newsroom Africa on Channel 405, I'm Veronica MaKhoali in Emfuleni.