Speaker 1: Well, let's focus now on the story that was reading
Speaker 1: and leading in Bali Lameni's bulletin earlier. This is further
Speaker 1: insight now into what was behind the assassination of Marforll,
Speaker 1: a senior auditor in the city of Ikurreleni. Now you
Speaker 1: may recall my colleague Alfa Ramashwana was earlier this year
Speaker 1: looking into a massive electricity billing scandal that cost the
Speaker 1: city more than two billion rand and he's with us
Speaker 1: now to draw connections between what actually happened with that
Speaker 1: billing scandal on the one hand, and the tragedy and
Speaker 1: criminality of the slaying of Marfolle. Alpha. Welcome, good to
Speaker 1: have you with us. I know you've been digging for
Speaker 1: a couple of days and we've been very keen to
Speaker 1: hear from you while you've been quietly beavering away. First
Speaker 1: of all, before you give us a sense of why
Speaker 1: you believe and people are saying to you there is
Speaker 1: a connection between those two things, just outline briefly for
Speaker 1: us what that billing is scandal was about, just so
Speaker 1: we're all up to speed before you get into the
Speaker 1: breaking news.
Speaker 2: Good oftenoon John So Between July twenty twenty three and
Speaker 2: twenty twenty four, there was a massive billion crisis in
Speaker 2: the city of Agurulene which led to a two billion
Speaker 2: rand revenue short for So essentially the city lost two
Speaker 2: billion rand in revenue and this included this billing system
Speaker 2: crisis included the manipulation of electricity accounts, so about one thousand,
Speaker 2: six hundred and sixty electricity accounts were tempered with, meaning
Speaker 2: households and businesses were paying much less than they're supposed
Speaker 2: supposed to be in a guruleny and some accounts were
Speaker 2: completely wiped off the system. So all of those one thousand,
Speaker 2: six hundred and sixty accounts were supposed to bring two
Speaker 2: billion rand in revenue in the city and that was
Speaker 2: lost because of this syndicate. Now, the question that was
Speaker 2: asked by the municipalities that who is behind this syndicate
Speaker 2: and the tempering of electricity accounts diverting the city's revenue
Speaker 2: to you know, other bank accounts which they don't know about.
Speaker 2: The city then instituted a forensic investigation. I think the
Speaker 2: Auditor General as always roped in to investigate this and
Speaker 2: they found that the billion crisis started in the ICT
Speaker 2: department and officials and number officials were suspended. In fact,
Speaker 2: two technicians at a warrant of arrest was issued for them,
Speaker 2: and in April, a senior city official was suspended from
Speaker 2: the municipality for negligence.
Speaker 1: Okay, so that is the background. Now you are saying,
Speaker 1: having done some digging and ask questions of the right people,
Speaker 1: that the murder of Pole, who'd only been in the
Speaker 1: job for three months, is connected to what you've just described.
Speaker 1: For us, who's saying this and what makes them say so?
Speaker 2: Was the head of forensic investigations in the City of Kuruleni,
Speaker 2: and the city had tasked that department with investigating the
Speaker 2: two billion rand electricity short for preliminary investigations had told
Speaker 2: them that the iced icit department was negligent, and that's
Speaker 2: why the head of that department was sus negligentest negligent
Speaker 2: according to the city negligent, yes, and that's why the
Speaker 2: head of that department was suspended in April. Now started
Speaker 2: shortly before that, actually at the City of Agurulene was
Speaker 2: working with the Auditor General before that and they conducted
Speaker 2: a more thorough investigation into the matter. He drew up
Speaker 2: a charge sheet and on the day that he submitted
Speaker 2: the charge sheet to the municipality, he was murdered on
Speaker 2: that very same evening. So we spoke to the may
Speaker 2: of Aguruliny today, who in fact confirmed on the record
Speaker 2: that he was made at after submitting the charge sheet,
Speaker 2: which implicated a number of city officials, a number of
Speaker 2: people in the billing crisis which lost two billion red
Speaker 2: for the city. And at this moment we can't divulge
Speaker 2: further for safety reasons, of course, but the charge sheet
Speaker 2: does tell us who exactly is involved in this syndicate.
Speaker 2: That these are the conferents the mayor gave us today.
Speaker 1: It is an extraordinary story. Did the mayor indicate in
Speaker 1: any way whether, as mister the late mister Mark Fole
Speaker 1: approached the point where he was able to put down
Speaker 1: names and assemble a charge sheet, whether he'd have any
Speaker 1: prior threats, And did he, further, if that was the case,
Speaker 1: say anything about steps that might have been taken, if
Speaker 1: any were to secure his personal safety.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, I mean, we hear government officials speaking
Speaker 2: about the protection of auditors and whistle blowers a lot,
Speaker 2: but that was not something he touched on today. But
Speaker 2: I did have a chat with the family, and the
Speaker 2: family in fact confirmed to me that they knew that
Speaker 2: he was working on something big. They knew that he
Speaker 2: was about to uncover corruption, and he had told him
Speaker 2: that he had just submitted a report which details widespread
Speaker 2: corruption in the city of Guruleni. So the municipality could
Speaker 2: not confirm whether or not he had told them that
Speaker 2: there were threats on his side. But the family, on
Speaker 2: the other hand, did say that they are aware that
Speaker 2: something big was happening as far as his job is concerned.
Speaker 1: And just finally and briefly, because I know you need
Speaker 1: at this moment alpha to be guarded about this, but
Speaker 1: the names are out there. Now does does this go
Speaker 1: high up into the administration at the Courrillni.
Speaker 2: So, yeah, that the charge sheets, there's actually a detailed
Speaker 2: report on this issue. It's still with the auditing team
Speaker 2: in the city of Egurillenni. We're expected to be taken
Speaker 2: to the Hawks because the city wants the Hawks to
Speaker 2: be involved in this, and possibly once the Hawks are involved,
Speaker 2: then we're going to see more action being taken against
Speaker 2: those people who are named that charge sheet. But at
Speaker 2: this moment, the mayor did say that accountability is going
Speaker 2: to come. He made a promise to the family, and
Speaker 2: I think that you know something. We're going to be
Speaker 2: seen in the next coming days or weeks.
Speaker 1: Alpha Ramashwana, many thanks. I've been on Alpha's case for
Speaker 1: the last couple of days, saying what have you got?
Speaker 1: What have you got? An? Alpha, as I think you
Speaker 1: can see now, was determined to make sure that he
Speaker 1: got all the pieces together. There's plenty more to follow.
Speaker 1: I'm sure stay tuned, stay listening to our bulletins, not
Speaker 1: just today, but EWN right on top of the story.
Speaker 1: Alpha was on it before it even broke some months back,
Speaker 1: and I'm quite sure he's going to dig for more
Speaker 1: and find more. It's twenty eight minutes to four