CFO’s fraud case postponed
The Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of the Modimolle-Mookgophong Municipality, Charles Malema, briefly appeared in the Polokwane Specialised Commercial Crimes Court on Monday 23 October on six charges of fraud, money laundering and contravening the Municipal Finance Management Act.
He appeared with four other accused, Andries Mokgotho (45), Bongani Masupye (45), Kedibone Magagane (45) and Sivhadana Murovhi (39).
The case was postponed to 5 February 2024 for disclosure of the docket content.
Malema is currently out on bail of R8 000, according to Mashudu Malabi-Dzhangi of the National Prosecuting Authority.
The charges against Malema and the other accused relate to payments of R5,4 million that were allegedly made by the Sekhukhune District Municipality to Murovhi and Masupye between 5 to 7 July 2018 without them rendering services to the municipality.
Approximately R4,8 million of the money was recovered after the bank accounts were frozen.
At that time Malema was the CFO at the district municipality, Mokgotho was the expenditure clerk and Magagane was the expenditure manager. Malema was appointed as CFO at the Modimolle-Mookgophong Municipality in June this year.
According to Ben Thobela, municipal manager of the Modimolle-Mookgophong Municipality, the vetting process for the CFO position did not pick up on any of these allegations.
“We are keeping a close eye on the matter. We have requested a forensic report that was done in 2018 from the Sekhukhune District Municipality. During his time at our municipality, Malema worked as an efficient CFO with one of his tasks being to enable residents to buy their electricity online. We understand from him that he did not expect the arrest, as he thought the matter had been laid to rest,” he said.
The forensic report looked at the involvement of the district municipality’s finances as well as the information and communications technology (ICT) department in the changing of banking details before payments were made.
The report’s recommendations stated that Malema as CFO failed to verify the transactions’ physical documents with the actual transactions on the final release of the payments.
