Revealed: Gciniwe robbed of Council's E100 000

The incident occurred about two weeks ago on March 9, a day after Fakudze had withdrawn the money. This is the same incident, which was raised by Senator Bhutana Dlamini in the House of Senate on Thursday.

He questioned if such a robbery was reported to the police and if not, he wanted to know what the rational behind not doing so was because these were state funds. It had been revealed that the robbery occurred on March 9 and was only reported to the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development, the parent ministry on March 19, 10 days later.

Fakudze, it has been gathered was on her way to Nelspruit to purchase specialised items for the municipal. Fakudze and a councillor (name known to this publication) with-drew the money at Standard Bank, Matsapha branch.

The councillor declined to comment when called on Thursday.

On the fateful day, Fakudze was in the company of three other employees of the Board. These were Nkosingiphile Tfwala (Accountant), Gugu Dlamini (Accounts Clerk) and Mduduzi Dladla (driver). Relating the ordeal, Dladla said he received instructions on March 8 that he would be transporting the CEO and colleagues to Nelspruit.

He said they left in the morning and exited through the Ngwenya/Oshoek Border Post. On the way to Nelspruit, Dladla said he noticed that they were being followed by a maroon BMW 318 that had Swazi registration plates but he did not pay much attention to it.

Along the way, just after passing Badplaas, Dladla said the BMW overtook them at a gentle curve before suddenly stopping in front of them. "We nearly crashed into it. As a result of the su-dden bra-king and panic, the eng-ine swit-ched off. I tried to re-start it so that I could reverse, but failed.

"While was trying to re-start the engine, one of the men from the BMW came running towards our vehicle. He was carrying a gun, which he pointed at the women. He demanded that they surrender their handbags. They complied to the order as instructed," Dladla said.

Interestingly, Dladla pointed out that the robber only demanded that the ladies hand over the bags, nothing else.

After taking the bags, the robbers drove away at high speed.

Dladla said they then drove to Badplaas Police Station where a case of robbery was opened.

Asked if he knew how much was stolen, he declared ignorance, saying the women would be in a position to reveal the figure.

Constable Titus Sekgobela, who is handling the matter in South Africa said three women reported that they had been allegedly robbed about E100 000.

Meanwhile Fakudze explained that they were robbed while on the way to purchase goods, which she described as specialised items for a depot.

She said the depot which needed the items was used for keeping building material. Fakudze pointed out that the department had about 80 employees hence it was the Board’s obligation to make sure that they worked under conducive conditions.

In order for the depot to be in good condition, Fakudze said they need to install lockers and venti-lation. Locally, Fakudze said they had bought the lockers, which she said were very expensive compared to South African suppliers.

Minister of Housing and Urban Development Lindiwe Dlamini also confirmed that the incident had been reported to her.

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