When mayor Kgotso Khumalo was arrested while he was in office, this resulted in instability and confusion at the JB Marks local municipality.
JB Marks municipality chamber of commerce chairperson Jonathan Baron said Khumalo had to resign in May as he, and the municipality's director Cecil Hendry and Mohau Shuping, faced eight charges relating to fraud and theft of the municipality's funds.
"The day after he was arrested, workers at the municipality stood back and asked: 'what now, who is in charge?'
"To have a situation where a mayor is in court, cannot go into the municipal building and resigns, just means the municipality is constantly in a stopping and starting process and there is no service delivery," Baron said.
Khumalo resigned due to the ANC's step-aside rule.
Khumalo and Hendry were released on warning and are prohibited from contacting state witnesses.
He, Hendry and Shuping are facing eight charges of theft and fraud. Their case in the North West high court, sitting in the Ventersdorp magistrate's court, is due back on July 7 for pre-trial conferencing.
The state alleges that the North West University and the Programme for Community Development paid about R5m into a trust account of an attorney for the use of specific project by the municipality.
"The attorney was then given instructions to effect various payments, which includes a R208,000 mayoral committee contribution towards the funeral of the late MEC for agriculture Duma Nleleni, who passed away on 23 November 2018," said the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA).
The NPA said it was, however, discovered that R200,000 was allegedly paid directly into the account of one of the accused. "From this amount R64,218 was paid to an institution where Khumalo’s relative was a student.
"It is alleged that false invoices were generated to effect more fictitious payments. Further to this act of criminality, Khumalo allegedly instructed the attorney to make payment to an NGO which did not exist," said the NPA.
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