This follows the tip off by whistle blowers were transformers‚ overhead lines‚ street lights‚ fuses‚ circuit breakers and street poles, were discovered during raids on several properties on Tuesday night in an attempt to eradicate corruption in the City of Johannesburg.
This was confirmed by metro’s Group Forensic Investigation Services (GFIS) head‚ Shadrack Sibiya‚ who said about R80-million worth of material had been seized.
“We received information from a whistle-blower who … told us about these assets which are in possession of certain individuals in their respective homes‚” said Sibiya.
“We haven’t arrested anybody simply because we were working on a tip-off and the very first thing we did was to apply for a search warrant to be able to conduct a search and seizure. After that‚ we then identify these items and only then do we begin the process of investigating as to how those items got into those people’s possession‚” he said.
The goods were used by contractors for daily maintenance‚ repairs and major projects‚ but allegedly not returned to City Power’s stores on completion of these projects.
Workaholic Lucky Sindane, spokesperson for Forensic Investigation Services, said they had obtained warrants to search 10 properties in various parts of Johannesburg including Midrand, Kempton Park and Germiston and seize equipment owned by City Power.
The teams had confiscated transformers, cables, cable drums and lights at most of the properties it had searched of current and former sub-contractors, he said.
Estimated to the value of around R80m, Sindane said the teams would be calculating the costs once all the operations were complete.
More raids and arrests are expected to follow as scrapyards are used for such unlawful activities.
