City's Integrity Unit warns of rampant diesel theft by employees

THE City’s Integrity and Investigations Unit in the eThekwini Municipality is sounding the alarm about the criminal conduct of some of the City's employees, warning that it could bankrupt the municipality.

- THAMI MAGUBANE

Head of the Unit, Jimmy Ngcobo, is concerned about the pervasive theft of municipal assets, specifically diesel. This comes after municipal staff were caught stealing diesel from a municipal water tanker this week.

Chairperson of the Trading Services committee, which is responsible for the tankers, Mdu Nkosi, stated that this was the second incident this year that he had become aware of, noting that such incidents impacted on the budget to deliver services.

In recent months, several City workers have been caught siphoning diesel from municipal vehicles to sell it off. Last month, it was reported that two municipal employees were arrested after they were caught stealing diesel meant for municipal operations.