Everson Luhanga
Three former DA councillors were arrested on Thursday, accused of receiving bribes of R100,000 each to vote out a former DA mayor in the Nelson Mandela Bay metro.
The trio were arrested by the East London-based Hawks’ Serious Corruption Investigation team.
Hawks’ spokesperson Captain Yolisa Mgolodela said the three former DA councillors were paid the monies as a “token of appreciation” for voting to oust their own leader, Athol Trollip, who was the mayor at the time of the vote of no confidence.
Trollip told Scrolla.Africa he was not surprised to hear about the arrest of the three DA councillors but that he knew all along that they must have received some kind of inducement.
He said: “That is how the ANC operates. They are still doing the same thing, where they can’t pay their staff but they can buy other councillors to do their bidding.”
He said the people who lost out are the people of NMB because there had been chaos in the municipality since those three had sold out.
“There is a special place in hell for people like that,” he said.
“I think that’s where they will all go.”
The dramatic arrest saw the three councillors being investigated and traced through a trail of bank transactions within the municipality. The authorities linked their bank accounts to the transactions made by the regional secretary in the municipality.
The three councillors were not the only ones who were nabbed by the Hawks on the day.
A 60-year-old former director of human settlements, a 57-year-old city manager, a 41-year-old businessman and his 36-year-old wife and a 29-year-old regional secretary were among the other suspects who were investigated and arrested on the day for various crimes including fraud.
The suspects are expected to appear in court on Friday 30 September in the Gqeberha Specialised Commercial Crimes Court.
