Bizarre mystery of a missing R84m… and the Hawks seeing no crime

The Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation, the Hawks, have been slated for closing the investigation into a bizarre incident in which R134 million – of which R84 million has now vanished – was “erroneously” paid to Bojanala district municipality in the North West.

The standing committee on public accounts (Scopa) has questioned the Hawks’ decision, saying it was baffling as there was clear indication of criminality and R84 million that cannot be accounted for.

The chronology of this inexplicable turn of events reads like a passage from a financial crime thriller.

According to Scopa’s chair in North West, Job Dliso, on 4 March 2019, the North West provincial department of cooperative governance, human settlements and traditional affairs “erroneously” transferred R134 million in Human Settlement Development Grant (HSDG) funds, destined for Rustenburg municipality, into the Bojanala municipality account.

He said a month later the department’s finance department noticed the “human error” and contacted the Bojanala municipality to notify them of the error and request the money back.

Dliso said by the time the district municipality was notified of the error, R84 million was gone and only the remaining R50 million was forwarded to the Rustenburg municipality.

He said to recoup the money, Treasury withheld the Bojanala district municipality’s equitable shares, which were then forwarded to Rustenburg local municipality to make up for the R84 million shortfall.

Dliso said the reason Bojanala district municipality was unable to pay salaries in November was because of the funds withheld by Treasury in lieu of the R84 million that vanished from the municipality’s account.

“There is no explanation as to what happened to the money and that is what we are interested in. We cannot say because the money had been recouped all is well. Remember the money was recouped by withholding the municipality’s Treasury allocations. We want to know what happened to the money that vanished in their account,” he said.

Dliso said there must be accountability for the missing millions, saying the closure of the investigation flew in the face of President Cyril Ramaphosa’s call to combat corruption in all spheres of government.

Provincial head of the Hawks in the North West Major-General Patrick Mbotho informed Dliso of the decision in a letter dated 19 December 2019. The letter stated that the decision to close the investigation was taken after it was established that the money had been paid back – but Scopa is having none of it.

“We smell a rat and we are not going to let this matter go until these funds are recovered and there are consequences,” he said.

The DA is not buying the story that the money landed in the cash-strapped district municipality’s coffers by mistake, only for a big chunk of it to go missing.

“It is too incredibly convenient. It also seems that they were waiting in the wings for the money to miraculously land in the account. Soon after the money had landed in the municipality’s account, they immediately opened a separate account and moved the funds,” said DA chief whip in the province Freddy Sonakile.

He said the Municipal Finance Management Act made provisions for a single account for council and that a separate account could only be opened for savings purposes, but this had to be approved by council.

Captain Tlangelani Rikhotso, Hawks spokesperson in North West, acknowledged receiving questions from The Citizen on Tuesday but had failed to respond at the time of going to press.

Department of cooperative governance, human settlements and traditional affairs spokesperson Dineo Lolokwane said the money “had been paid back” but did not detail how it was recouped.

– siphom@citizen.co.za

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