{"id":117449,"date":"2020-04-11T16:43:03","date_gmt":"2020-04-11T14:43:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mobserver.co.za\/?p=117449"},"modified":"2020-04-11T16:58:21","modified_gmt":"2020-04-11T14:58:21","slug":"steve-tshwete-anc-councilor-arrested-suspended-alleged-lockdown-fraud","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/develop.citizen.co.za\/middelburg-observer\/news-headlines\/2020\/04\/11\/steve-tshwete-anc-councilor-arrested-suspended-alleged-lockdown-fraud\/","title":{"rendered":"Steve Tshwete ANC councillor arrested and suspended for alleged lockdown fraud"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Nkangala ANC welcomed the suspension and arrest of Steve Tshwete municipal councillor, Mr Musawenkosi Masina, for allegedly issuing fraudulent essential services work permits at R300 per permit.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Www.mobserver.co.za<\/strong> reliably learnt that the Steve Tshwete ANC caucus is also investigating another councillor in its midst for the same offence. The second investigation is, however, still ongoing.<\/p>\n<p>According to a report submitted to the ANC in regards to Mr Masina&#8217;s suspension, a council delegation visited Hendrina\u00a0 with law enforcement officials for a national lockdown inspection on Thursday.<\/p>\n<p>During a walk trough inspection, a shop owner in Hendrina produced the fraudulent essential services permit, allegedly issued by Mr Masina.<\/p>\n<p>Further investigation revealed that Mr Masina allegedly charged R300 per permit.<\/p>\n<p>Mr Masina was arrested but released on warning.<\/p>\n<p>He was rearrested on Friday after allegedly selling fraudulent permits again.<\/p>\n<p>He will appear in court next week.<\/p>\n<p>The EFF&#8217;s Mr Enos Sebesho says the suspension is not enough and that the ANC ought to remove Mr Masina from council permanently.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;If the allegation that he was caught, released and rearrested, its clear that he has no respect for the rule of law, and actively putting lives in danger unnecessarily,&#8221; Mr Sebesho told <strong>www.mobserver.co.za<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>A media briefing on the scandal is scheduled to be held tomorrow.<\/p>\n<p>The DA commended the swift action taken by the ANC.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Www.mobserver.co.za reliably learnt that the Steve Tshwete ANC caucus is also currently investigating another councilor in its midst for the same offence. The second investigation is, however, still ongoing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5031,"featured_media":58291,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"hasGravity":false,"cxt_article_byline":"Gerhard Rheeder","cxt_disable_google_ads":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,2],"tags":[1146,2958,24040,5947,2011,23726,3798,2684,24054,21966,920,3275],"class_list":["post-117449","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","category-news-headlines","tag-anc","tag-arrest","tag-corona","tag-corruption","tag-court","tag-covid-19","tag-fraud","tag-jail","tag-lockdown","tag-middelburg","tag-steve-tshwete-municipality","tag-virus"],"category_labels":{"Category":"News","SubCategory":"Local news"},"tag_labels":["anc","arrest","corona","corruption","court","Covid-19","fraud","jail","lockdown","middelburg","Steve Tshwete Municipality","virus"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/develop.citizen.co.za\/middelburg-observer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117449","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/develop.citizen.co.za\/middelburg-observer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/develop.citizen.co.za\/middelburg-observer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/develop.citizen.co.za\/middelburg-observer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5031"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/develop.citizen.co.za\/middelburg-observer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=117449"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/develop.citizen.co.za\/middelburg-observer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117449\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/develop.citizen.co.za\/middelburg-observer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/58291"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/develop.citizen.co.za\/middelburg-observer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=117449"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/develop.citizen.co.za\/middelburg-observer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=117449"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/develop.citizen.co.za\/middelburg-observer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=117449"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}