Durban — The fraud, corruption, and money laundering case against the former mayor of eThekwini Zandile Gumede and others continued on Tuesday after several delays.
A witness (who cannot be named for safety reasons) who is a former municipal official was back on the stand. The witness told the court that in November 2017 they had asked for an extension of the contracts of the contractors who were collecting waste around the City. He said this was because his subordinates had not processed about one thousand service providers’ applications for the solid waste contracts.
He said had the old contractors not been given an extension to continue collecting waste, the City would have been left dirty, and illegal dumping of waste would have increased. He said the Durban Solid Waste unit would not have been able to collect waste in high-impact areas.
He said the extension was approved in December 2017, and more than R53 million was set aside for this.
The 22 accused in the case, including Gumede, are facing charges that include conspiracy to commit corruption, corruption, fraud, money laundering, racketeering, contravention of the Municipal Finance Management Act, and contravention of the Municipal Systems Act worth more than R300 million relating to a Durban Solid Waste tender.
The matter was adjourned because accused 21, Sithamone Ponnan, who was ill, had to visit a doctor and was unable to follow the court proceedings virtually. The court had allowed her to follow its proceedings virtually last week provided that she had a legal practitioner with her.
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