In a significant development that echoes the frustrations of Mkhondo residents in Mpumalanga, a senior manager at the Mkhondo Local Municipality has been arrested on serious fraud charges.

This follows a public outcry from residents who had marched to the municipality’s offices five months earlier, demanding accountability for ongoing service delivery failures that have plagued the area.

According to reports, in March, angry Mkhondo residents marched to the council offices to hand over a memorandum of their grievances.

The residents alleged that the incompetence of corrupt managers had led to several ongoing service delivery failures, including a lack of proper roads, water shortages, load reduction, and sewage issues.

One resident said the challenges they are facing with bad road infrastructure, water outages, and poor delivery of electricity and sewage services can be attributed to the level of corruption that is “engulfing this municipality”.

“The issues of water, electricity, roads, and sewer is based on incompetence… Some of these people have been in management for 10 years. Surely that is a sign, and we can attest that they are incompetent. So what we have written in the modern dam is that they must go,” he said.

The municipality admitted that while the concerns of the residents were genuine, some of them were out of its control.

The municipality said its population had grown drastically over the last few years, and as a result, it was unable to keep up with the increased demand for electricity.

A statement on Friday by the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation, commonly known as the Hawks, revealed that the long arm of the law had finally caught up to a senior manager at the municipality.

Six years after Public Safety manager Sydney Masango colluded with businessman Gugulethu Zulu to bill the municipality over R85,000 for fixing a municipal road marker that cost just over R718.20, they were arrested.

Hawks spokesperson Lieutenant Colonel Magonseni Nkosi said Masango, 46, was arrested alongside his accomplice Zulu, 48, by the Hawks Middelburg-based Serious Organised Crime Investigation on Thursday, August 28, 2025.

Nkosi said Masango was arrested at his workplace at Mkhondo Local Municipality, while Zulu was captured at a filling station in Piet Retief.

He said that according to information, the municipality’s road marker machine was damaged in 2019, and it is alleged that Masango was responsible for logistics to get the machine fixed.

Arrangements were put in place to get the machine fixed at a service provider that cost only R718.20, he said.

“The duo allegedly paid the service provider the required amount. In return, Zulu, a company director and current supervisor in one of the industries in Mkhondo (Piet Retief), allegedly invoiced Mkhondo Municipality the total amount of R85,875.00,” said Nkosi.

The Hawks said the amount was allegedly paid into Zulu’s business account for his company ‘Legent 12’.

“An investigation was conducted, and all clues that linked Masango and Zulu to fraudulent activities or theft of the municipality funds were uncovered,” said Nkosi.

Shortly after their arrest, Masango and Zulu were taken to Mkhondo District Court, and both accused were released on R4,000 bail each.

The Hawks said the matter was postponed to October to secure a date for their regional court appearance.

karen.singh@inl.co.za

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