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A municipal manager in Mpumalanga – who once splurged R20 million on bodyguards – is facing new charges of allegedly siphoning about R1 million from farm leases into a private account.
The DA laid fraud and corruption charges against Emalahleni municipal manager Theo van Vuuren on Friday, after evidence showed that money paid by commercial farmers to lease the council’s farms was paid into an FNB account that does not belong to the municipality.
The municipality leased the farms on condition that the farmers transfer skills to black-owned agricultural cooperatives in the Emalahleni municipal area.
City Press has copies of the documents on which the DA bases its case.
A letter that Van Vuuren allegedly wrote in October to Vierfontein Boerdery – giving the company the right to lease 847 hectares of Rietkuil, Roodepoort and Roodekop farms – instructed the company to pay the lease amount into the municipality’s “secondary account”. Van Vuuren apparently signed the letter that stipulated that the contract would end in October 2018. The municipality banks with Absa.
However, Vierfontein Boerdery paid an amount of R544 256 to the FNB account mentioned in Van Vuuren’s letter.
Another farming company, De Wet & Seuns, paid R356 105 into the same bank account for a lease on other portions of the Emalahleni council’s farms.
The FNB account, according to the documents, belongs to Nutra Trading and Projects.
Some of the documents also show that Vierfontein Boerdery paid an additional R75 000 into the personal bank account of an ANC councillor who allegedly received the amount on behalf of “a cooperative”.
DA councillor Koos Venter said Van Vuuren could have been involved in an elaborate scheme that has defrauded the municipality of close to R1 million.
“After serving as the municipality’s administrator, acting municipal manager and now municipal manager, Van Vuuren should be well aware of sections of the Municipal Finance Management Act,” he said.
Mpumalanga police spokesperson Brigadier Selvy Mohlala, confirmed that a fraud case had been opened.
“The municipal manager is accused of transferring money into a private account. This docket will be referred to the organised crime unit to investigate,” Mohlala said.
Van Vuuren said that he would get the municipality’s audit team to investigate the matter.
“I can’t tell if the signature there is mine [or not], because I don’t have the original copy of the document. There seems to be something wrong, and I’ve cancelled any agreement with the farmers and instructed officials that no money be paid into that account,” Van Vuuren said.
He confirmed that the municipality banked with Absa, and said at the time the lease contracts were signed he was an acting municipal manager and accounts were delegated to the chief financial officer. He said he was unaware of the payments because this was the function of the finance department.
“I have referred this matter to our chief financial officer to advise me whether there is a problem with this account. Based on my current knowledge of the system, I am sceptical about whether this is a municipal account,” he said.
Van Vuuren was first appointed at the municipality as an administrator in 2013 to turn it around following financial mismanagement and corruption. City Press found evidence in 2014 showing that Van Vuuren had paid bodyguards R20.3 million from February 28 2013 to May 21 2014 to protect the municipality’s senior managers.
The bodyguards were hired after SA Municipal Workers’ Union members had accused municipal manager George Mthimunye of corruption and frogmarched him out of the municipal premises to the ANC’s Nkangala regional offices.
