The case of the former speaker of the Rustenburg municipality, Elizabeth Seduke, and three others accused of stealing cellphones was postponed in the Rustenburg Regional Court on Wednesday.
Seduke (38) Godfrey Monaisa (28) Daimy Maulwane (33) and Annelia Phefo (32) appeared briefly in the regional court on Wednesday.
The accused are alleged to have renewed cellphones contracts allocated to Rustenburg councillors and then kept the handsets, which were later sold, allegedly by Monaisa.
The scam was uncovered when an Independent Democrats councillor, Agnes Tsamai, enquired about her account and realised that cellphones that were allocated to people who were no longer councillors were still active.
Some of the contracts had been renewed in the names of councillors who had died or had been expelled from their parties.
The cellphones were managed from the office of the speaker, where Daimy Maulwane and Annelia Phefo were employed.
Monaisa and Seduke were arrested in February. At their first court appearance, Maulwane and Phefo were named as witnesses, but when they appeared again on March 15, they had joined the ranks of the accused.
Police said 12 cellphones worth R12 000 had been stolen and four had been recovered.
The accused are all on bail of R1 000 each. The case was postponed to November 30 for further investigation.
Seduke, who was the mayoral committee member for community development after the March local government election, has another case of fraud, extortion, corruption and intimidation pending against her.
The trial in this case is scheduled to resume in the Rustenburg Regional court on August 29. She is out on R1 000 bail in this case as well. – Sapa