Eastern Cape municipal clerk arrested for fraud and money laundering, granted bail

Andile Mhlawuli, who was employed as an administrative clerk at the Buffalo City metropolitan municipality, allegedly fraudulently pocketed funds between April and August 2014 at the expense of service providers.

CAPE TOWN, April 23 (ANA) – An Eastern Cape clerk arrested on charges of fraud and money laundering has been granted bail, the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation (the Hawks) said on Friday.

Thirty-five year old Andile Mhlawuli was arrested by the East London serious commercial crime investigation team on Thursday, Hawks spokeswoman Captain Yolisa Mgolodela said in a statement.

Mhlawuli, who was employed as an administrative clerk at the Buffalo City metropolitan municipality, allegedly fraudulently pocketed funds between April and August 2014 at the expense of service providers.

His modus operandi was to identify projects where tenders have been awarded but there were retention funds that had not been claimed by the service providers.

“The accused would then prepare payment packs with falsified documents purporting to be those from service providers. The funds would then be deposited into bank accounts belonging to his friends and relatives for withdrawals,” Mgolodela said.

The Hawks investigation team managed to link Mhlawuli to several fraudulent transactions which cost Buffalo City over R140,000 (US$9,808). He appeared at the East London magistrate’s court and was granted bail of R1,000.

The matter was postponed for a trial date to be set.

In an unrelated matter, two men were sentenced to 10 years imprisonment at the Mthatha regional court after they were convicted of kidnapping a businessman in Libode in June 2019.

The men accosted the victim, drove off with him in his vehicle and demanded a R1 million ransom from his family. They were arrested five days later.

– African News Agency (ANA), Editing by Stella Mapenzauswa