The Nelson Mandela Bay council will soon consider a motion to suspend more than 10 officials involved in streetlight contract fraud, following Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs, Velenkosini Hlabisa's revelations of the content of a preliminary Special Investigations Unit report showing serious misconduct.

It is expected that at its next sitting the Nelson Mandela Bay metro council will hear a motion, submitted by the DA's Ondela Kepe, pushing for the precautionary suspension of "more than 10" officials in the Electricity and Energy Directorate who were found by the Special Investigations Unit to allegedly be involved in streetlight tender fraud and corruption in the metro.

This comes as the Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs, Velenkosini Hlabisa, revealed last week that an SIU investigation into controversial streetlight contracts from 2020 issued by the Nelson Mandela Bay metro has uncovered cases of fraud, the Contravention of the Prevention and Combating of Corrupt Activities Act and contravention of the Prevention of Organised Crime Act.

Now, Kepe has submitted a motion to the metro council to have these officials suspended and to implement measures to recoup the money lost by the officials.

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Another court case initiated in Nelson Mandela Bay, and spearheaded by former mayor Athol Trollip and former city manager Johann Mettler, ended two years ago with a finding by the Supreme Court of Appeal that the metro can recover money lost due to fraud and corruption from officials themselves. Currently, some efforts are under...