Ten suspects - including former mayco member Malusi Booi - are set to appear in the Cape Town Magistrate’s Court on Wednesday on charges of fraud and corruption.
Police made a breakthrough in their protracted investigation this week when the eight were arrested in the Eastern Cape and Johannesburg.
Court proceedings were delayed for a number of hours as the suspects had to be processed after being transported from the different provinces.
Police spokesperson Novela Potelwa said the possibility of more arrests “cannot be ruled out”.
The arrests came as part of the investigation related to the City of Cape Town’s human settlements directorate where 11 people were scammed out of nearly R1million.
Potelwa had said a 46-year-old suspect was arrested on Monday and thereafter Western Cape SAPS commercial crimes unit detectives with the Anti Gang Unit’s organised crime investigators arrested three more suspects in Johannesburg on Tuesday.
Four other suspects were arrested on the same day in Cape Town, said Potelwa.
“The arrest follows an investigation initiated by commercial crimes detectives that saw the investigators descending on the City of Cape Town offices in March 2023 and seizing a number of items as part of their probe,” said Potelwa.
After the police confiscated items at the City of Cape Town offices, the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) confirmed the accused were alleged to have illegally sold municipal plots at the City’s Extension 2 Mfuleni project.
The two City officials are alleged to have fraudulently approached the other two accused to ask if they knew of anyone wanting to buy plots directly from them.
Provincial police commissioner Thembisile Patekile attended the court proceedings on Wednesday.
Cape Times