Durban - A PROMINENT Pietermaritzburg couple, Sanjay and Leanne Mewalall, had their luxury Northdale house and 16 vehicles seized when the Asset Forfeiture Unit (AFU) swooped on them in an early morning raid last week.
Mewalall, the chief financial officer of the Richmond Municipality, and his wife are accused of obtaining their assets through the proceeds of crime.
The assets of Sindhu Bhogal and his company MKT Services, Seema Maniram and Leanne’s Thistle Group have also been frozen under a court order. Bhogal and Maniram have been cited as alleged accomplices in the crimes.
They have been charged with defrauding the municipality of about R2million. The accused appeared in the Durban Commercial Crimes Court where the case is pending.
In the court papers, submitted in a High Court application last month, a director of public prosecutions (DPP) referred to affidavits made by the financial investigator - in this case, Akbar Ally and the criminal investigator Bradley Swift.
Kenneth Samuel, the DPP, said the arrests followed a probe into fraud and corruption at the Richmond Municipality. He said the objective of restraining the property was because it was likely to yield an amount sufficient to satisfy a confiscation order that will later be sought against the accused.
In his affidavit to the court, Samuel said Swift received information from the municipal manager, Sibusiso Sithole, relating to fraud and corruption involving the chief financial officer, Mewalall. Sithole was killed when he was shot multiple times on March 6 last year by two unknown assailants who had allegedly impersonated police officers. They fled the scene by car.
As a result of Sithole’s death, National Treasury appointed KPMG to conduct an investigation into the allegations against Mewalall.
Samuel said that investigations further revealed that Mewalall allegedly elicited a bribe from the director of a company in return for awarding it the tender.
According to Samuel, R100000 was paid into Bhogal’s bank account and the money then transferred to Mewalall. However, the tender was awarded to another company, Munsoft.
It is further alleged that Mewalall devised a scheme in which Munsoft inflated its quotation to include sub-contractor fees whereby Bhogal’s company, and a company called SM Bookkeepers owned by Maniram, would receive R250000 and R450000 respectively.
Samuel said the appointment of MKT Services as a service provider was irregular because it was not registered on the municipal database.
He added that the municipality did not adhere to the competitive bidding process applicable to the procurement of services that are above R200000 as required.
Samuel said that Mewalall benefited to the tune of R1.4million. He said Bhogal and his company benefited to the tune of R350000 and Maniram R450 000 while Mewalall’s wife Leanne benefited an amount of R46000 and her Thistle Group R174 000.