Central SA
Seven Emfuleni employees in court over alleged fraud─── ZENANDE MPAME 10:17 Mon, 24 Aug 2026
Seven Emfuleni municipal employees are expected to appear in the Vanderbijlpark Magistrate’s Court on Monday (24/8) on charges of fraud, theft and tampering with essential infrastructure.
The suspects are attached to the municipality’s revenue and electrical departments, and the charges are linked to illegal electricity reconnections. The arrests were made during takedown operations conducted by the Gauteng Political Killings Task Team in Vanderbijlpark.
Five suspects were arrested on Friday (21/8), and two additional suspects on Sunday, bringing the total to seven.
Scheme
National police spokesperson Brig. Athlenda Mathe said preliminary investigations indicate the suspects allegedly operated a scheme targeting municipal clients whose electricity supplies had been disconnected.
They allegedly misrepresented themselves as authorised officials who could reconnect electricity supplies that had been cut by the municipality.“Clients were allegedly instructed to pay various amounts of money directly into the suspects’ bank accounts in exchange for the illegal reconnection of electricity. The suspects are further alleged to have unlawfully reconnected electricity supplies without the authorisation of the municipality, resulting in the illegal use of electricity and financial losses to the municipality.”
The arrests take place in the middle of a larger inquiry into alleged financial irregularities in the municipality. Emfuleni financial clerk and whistleblower Martha Mani Rantsofu was gunned down in broad daylight at a tyre fitment centre in Vanderbijlpark in April, just weeks after reporting several suspected corruption cases to police.
Rantsofu had reportedly provided investigators with information on several cases in the days before her death. Two people have since been arrested in connection with some of the transactions she had flagged. Former municipal fleet manager Lerato Mpholo faces charges of theft, fraud and corruption linked to an R16m tender.
Businesswoman Janitha van Reenen was also arrested in connection with a R424,000 municipal account scandal believed to have been uncovered by Rantsofu. Van Reenen remains in custody after being denied bail twice. It is still unclear whether the most recent arrests are linked to information Rantsofu provided to investigators.
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