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