| 2024/12/13 |
|
Media Statement EASTERN CAPE – The Gqeberha Hawk’s Serious Commercial Crime Investigation served Gary Stanton Van Niekerk (51) the deputy mayor of Nelson Mandela Metropolitan Municipality with summons on 14 November 2024 to appear before the Gqeberha Specialised Commercial Crimes court on 12 December 2024 facing allegations of cyber fraud and contravention of Municipal Finance Management Act (MFMA). It is alleged that on 8 June 2022, Van Niekerk wrote a letter to appoint certain law firm that is based in Gqeberha to be a service provider to provide legal services and he undersigned in a speaker’s capacity while he was no longer a Municipal councillor at the time. Moreover, he further allegedly instructed the same law firm to declare vacancies of three Party Representative councillors for the Northern areas in Gqeberha. Consequently, Van Niekerk reportedly made certain appointments pretending to be the speaker of the council. As a result of the alleged misrepresentation, the law firm submitted an invoice to the Municipality for services rendered, that led the institution being prejudiced cash to an amount of over R500 000. The matter was reported to the Hawks for thorough probing. The investigations by the Hawks confirmed the allegations and established that Van Niekerk also made another unauthorised law firm appointment on behalf of the Municipality. Further probing exposed that Van Niekerk unlawfully and intentionally made misrepresentation to defraud the Municipality which led him being served with summons to appear before the Gqeberha Specialised Commercial Crimes court on 12 December 2024. The matter was remanded to 15 January 2025 for legal representation. The Provincial Head of the Hawks Major General Mboiki Obed Ngwenya expressed his gratitude to the Gqeberha SCCI for the resilience in their success in ensuring that the deputy mayor have his day in court. Ends
Enquiries:
X (Twitter): https://twitter.com/SAPoliceService
|
|
|
