The North West National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) spokesperson, Henry Mamothane, said that the state is ready to proceed with the trial and hopes that it will be concluded within a short period of time, after the Regional Court had appointed the Magistrate who will preside over the case.

The former mayor, together with his co-accused Cecil Henry and Mohau Shuping, are facing multiple charges of fraud and theft of municipal funds.

“The NPA welcomes the pre-trial date of 20 August 2021 on the fraud and theft case against the former mayor of JB Marks Local Municipality, Mr Kgotso Khumalo, and two other accused persons. We also welcome the appointment of the presiding officer by the Regional Court president. We hope this will assist in concluding this case in a reasonable period, as we are ready to for the case to go trial,” said Mamothane.

Meanwhile, the three accused are out on a warning and they are prohibited from having any contact with the state witness. OFM had previously reported on allegations that the North-West University and the Programme for Community Development paid about R5 million into a trust account of an attorney for the use of specific projects by the municipality. The attorney was then given instructions to effect various payments, which includes a R208 000 mayoral committee contribution towards the funeral of the late MEC for Agriculture, Duma Ndleleni, who passed away on 23 November 2018. It was, however, discovered that R200 000 was paid directly into the account of one of the accused. From this amount, R64 218 was paid to an institution where Khumalo’s relative was a student. It is alleged that false invoices were generated to effect more fictitious payments. Further to this act of criminality, Khumalo allegedly instructed the attorney to make payments to an NGO which did not exist.

OFM News/Kekeletso Mosebetsi