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Port Elizabeth – Walter Sisulu Municipal Speaker Kholekile Lange was arrested for alleged corruption on Thursday.
The Directorate for Priority Crime investigation (Hawks) spokesperson Brigadier Hangwani Mulaudzi said the senior official at the Walter Sisulu municipality was arrested for fraud and corruption.
Mulaudzi said the charges stemmed from the senior official allegedly submitting subsistence and travelling claims using vehicle details of an unsuspecting member of the public.
Democratic Alliance councillor, Matthee Nel, a PR councillor from Walter Sisulu, said Lange was arrested during a special council meeting on Thursday, when the Hawks stormed the council chambers.
Nel said the DA would be bringing a motion of no confidence against Lange, to be dealt with in the next Full Ordinary Council Meeting.
Nel said the Walter Sisulu Municipal Manager, Thembinkosi Mawonga, was seen talking to the Hawks after Lange was escorted to a vehicle and driven to Aliwal North Police station; where he is believed to have spent the night.
Lange appeared briefly in the Aliwal Magistrate’s Court on Friday, where he was supported by ANC councillors, the mayor as well as Mawonga. He was granted bail of R5000. The case was postponed to Tuesday, March 21 pending further investigation.
“The office of the Speaker is meant to act objectively, fairly and with great integrity when it comes to council matters and we cannot have a Speaker who is in jail cells, when he should be working to solve the enormous issues of delivery breakdown in Walter Sisulu,” said Nel.
Mulaudzi said in a separate incident, two Eastern Cape provincial traffic officers from Maletswai Municipality in Aliwal North, and a driving school instructor from the same area had also been arrested for allegedly selling learner and driver’s licenses.
“The three suspects are suspected to have raked in thousands of rands and investigations are ongoing,” he said.
