Durban - An official in Abaqulusi Local Municipality is under investigation for stealing about R4million in municipal funds. The female staff member in the finance unit was taken in for questioning on Monday. Abaqulusi is currently under administration.

It is alleged that, in December 2019, when the municipality was making a payment of R3.9m to Eskom, an official changed the recipient’s banking details to her bank account details and, when the bank discovered the discrepancy, the said official went further to instruct the bank to continue with the payment.

Upon discovery of this, the administrator moved to secure an interim order for the preservation of the said funds. Through this exercise, R2.5m was recovered from the official’s account. A team of experts is combing through accounts to determine what happened to the missing balance.

ANC regional secretary in Abaqulusi, Zakhele Buthelezi, said they were pleased with the arrest.

“We believe there has been a lot of malfeasance at that municipality and we are calling for more investigations as we believe there have been other issues, such as tender irregularities and improper employment of workers. We must also remember that this comes after the arrest of the speaker for stealing a municipal generator,” he said.