Cape Town - The Muslim Judicial Council (MJC) has placed its Treasury under administration after a Commission of Inquiry (COI) found systematic financial mismanagement and serious control failures.
The MJC confirmed the decision following a leaked report which exposed alleged financial mismanagement and fraud in the handling of relief funds.
In a statement on Monday, the MJC said the inquiry was launched relating to allegations of financial irregularities for their 2020/2021 financial year.
“After a thorough investigative process, the COI issued a report to the Senior Council of the MJC (SA) ‘Imaarah’ followed by a presentation of the findings to the MJC General Majlis.
“The COI’s investigation found no prima facie evidence of theft, however, the COI found systematic financial mismanagement and serious control failures. The COI report was unanimously accepted by the Imaarah.
“Owing to the seriousness of these findings the Imaarah resolved placing the Treasury function of the MJC (SA) under administration.
“Furthermore, a disciplinary process was initiated by the Imaraah against the implicated individuals. This process is currently underway and is being chaired by an external legal professional,” the MJC said.
“While the MJC hopes for a swift resolution to this matter, and in line with the Islamic injunction of fairness, the Imaarah is committed to providing all persons a fair due process. The MJC (SA) would like to clarify that it did not receive any Covid-19 monies as alleged in social media,” the statement read.
The allegations of funds mismanagement surfaced when former executive member, Dr Moulana Yusuf Arieff, in April last year wrote a letter to the General Council, calling for an investigation into R900 000 donated to Imam’s for Covid relief.
A four-member committee of the COI was tasked to investigate 38 transactions to the tune of more than R928 000 following the allegations.
They found that while an amount of R230 000 was accounted for, an additional amount of R470 900 was unaccounted for and was not authorised by the MJC Exco.
Cape Times