Municipal official 'takes R1000 and runs'
2011-08-04
A MUNICIPAL official has allegedly stolen R1000 from a widow, after alleging that she owed the money to SARS. Diana Mariti (49) of Mbekweni has been waiting for two years for the Drakenstein Municipality to pay out her husband’s pension fund. Johannes Mariti, a general worker of the Municipality, died in 2009. Since then, Diana has visited the Municipality regularly to hear when his pension money would be paid out to her. Recently there was however light at the end of the tunnel, when an employee of the salaries division of the Municipality, Thoma Stengana, visited Diana and informed her that a cheque of R26 000 would be paid out to her. “She said that there was one small problem. I would have to pay her R2400 for taxes, which she would then pay over to SARS,” said Diana. “Stengana came to my house again and this time she had a municipal cheque for R26 000 for me. And still she insisted that I pay her R2 400. “But I told her that I did not have that kind of money and that I would only be able to pay her once I had deposited the cheque into my bank account and the funds were available in my account. This usually takes ten days.” Diana says that when she went to deposit the cheque at her bank, bank staff became suspicious about the cheque and told her that she must go to the police station to complete an affidavit as to how she had got hold of the cheque. Hereafter she took the cheque back to the bank and it was deposited into her account. Shortly after this, Maria said that Stengana was knocking on her door again for the money she allegedly had to pay to SARS. “Out of frustration I gave her my last R1000 and said that I would pay the rest once the cheque had been cleared.” But when family members of Maria came to hear of this, they were highly upset that she had paid any funds over to Stengana. They have now laid a charge of fraud against Stengana at the Mbekweni police station and are looking for answers from the Drakenstein Municipality as to where Maria’s pension money really is, and the legality of how Stengana was authorised to hand the cheque over to Maria. A spokesperson for the Drakenstein Municipality, May Carolissen, said that the matter regarding the employee who is allegedly to have handed over a cheque to the widow, is currently under investigation. “We cannot comment until after the investigation has been completed.”
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