Eight City of Joburg finance officials were arrested on Friday for allegedly being involved in issuing fraudulent refunds on properties. Seven of them were arrested at the city’s group finance offices in Braamfontein, following a combined operation by the city’s investigations unit and the Hawks. Lucky Sindane, spokesman for group forensic and investigations services, said warrants had been issued for the arrests of five additional employees who were on leave, and one who had resigned. The 14 officials implicated in the refunds unit affected about 80% of all the staff in the unit, Sindane said. Three members of the public were also involved in the matter and would be arrested, Sindane said. He said the amount of the fraudulent returns involved totalled so R2.5m so far, but that was expected to rise. Sindane said it was alleged that the officials implicated were colluding with certain companies to inflate the size of refunds owed by the city. The inflated amount would then be paid in...
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