Emfuleni employees’ bail application postponed to Wednesday

The bail application of the seven Emfuleni Municipality employees has been postponed to Wednesday by the Vanderbijlpark Magistrates’ Court.

The postponement was due to the court’s stenotype machine being out of service.

The application will also be moved to a regional court on Wednesday.

The accused are facing charges of fraud, theft, money laundering and tampering with essential infrastructure .

They allegedly exploited the municipality’s electricity disconnections by offering residents and businesses illegal reconnections at a fee.

The accused allegedly received cash payments into their bank accounts for the work they did.

National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) spokesperson Lumka Mahanjana says they are ready to continue with the case and they will oppose bail.

“It’s frustrating because we were ready to proceed.

The state indicated in court that we are ready to proceed with the bail application, and the state will oppose bail.

However, we could not proceed, and the matter was beyond our control, but when the matter is appearing on the 2nd, the state will proceed with the bail application and will oppose their release on bail.” VIDEO| The court is yet to confirm how much the Emfuleni employees were charging residents for electricity reconnection: