Durban - The Msunduzi Municipality is planning to sue a former employee in the civil courts after he was convicted and sentenced in the criminal courts this week for stealing R242 043.78 worth of petrol from municipal bowsers.
It also emerged on Thursday that this theft was just the tip of the iceberg – with recent investigations showing that at least R5 million of fuel was stolen from the municipality in the year-long period ending in July 2013.
Madeleine Plaatjies, the manager in the municipal manager’s office, said on Thursday that the convicted former employee, Hopewell Magubane, had been sentenced to pay a fine of R12 000 or spend six months in jail, along with a two-year suspended sentence.
“While the sentence might not be what we would have wanted, it does serve as a deterrent to other municipal employees in that it shows that the results of forensic investigations can now go to the courts for people to account for their evil deeds. We do however respect the decisions of the court as an independent adjudicator in criminal and civil matters.”
Magubane had stolen the petrol for a year from July 2013. She said the court had not ordered him to compensate the municipality, so it would go through the legal processes to recover the full losses. She said theft and fraud by employees was preventing the municipality from complying fully with the Bill of Rights, to improve the quality of life of all its citizens through service provision.
Revenue collected by the municipality came from various sources, such as electricity, rates, water, sewerage and refuse removal services. The money was intended for service provision, infrastructure assets, refurbishment, maintenance and basic services.
She said that internal investigations revealed that R5.1m worth of fuel had been stolen in the time Magubane had been stealing.
“Stringent control measures have since been implemented and were put in place, including the involvement of the internal audit unit on the daily operations in order to identify problems and investigate them.”
The measures, put in place in July last year, had resulted in the municipality saving R6.8 million of its budget that was earmarked for the purchase of fuel.
In addition, last month an anti-theft system had been installed in the bowsers, which would prevent further theft and fraud.
This would result in even more savings and the municipality would constantly audit the usage of fuel to enhance any other risks in the system, added Plaatjies.
The Mercury