Central SA
Five accused of defrauding farm community appear in court─── 07:06 Thu, 02 Feb 2023
Five people accused of defrauding their Schaapkraal Communal Property Association (CPA) in North West of R590 000, appeared in the Rustenburg Magistrate’s Court on Tuesday 1 February 2023 facing charges of theft and fraud.
They were identified as 81-year-old Solomon Motepe, 72-year-old Jaki Montsho, 72-year-old Michael Maledu, 50-year-old Christian Letlhake, and 36-year-old Linky Thage.
According to a statement released by the police, the five accused are executive committee members of the Schaapkraal CPA, which is an association that comprises the community beneficiaries of Schaapkraal farm in Marikana. It is reported that the CPA had a contract with Eskom and a payment for the annual servitude rights was due. The five accused allegedly conspired and gave Eskom a different bank account to which payment should be made.
In August 2019, two payments were made into the account and the group allegedly shared the funds among themselves, failing to disclose the said payment to the rest of the CPA members.
The matter was reported to the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation (Hawks) and the Serious Commercial Crime Investigation unit probed the matter, which led to the arrest of the accused on 31 January 2023.
All five accused were released on R1000 bail each, and the matter was postponed to 15 February 2023.
