Former Knysna mayor Thando Matika, acting municipal manager Boy Manqoba Ngubo and acting chief financial officer Busisiwe Lubelwana in the dock at the Knysna Magistrate's Court on Monday

Knysna's former mayor and two top municipal officials will spend another week behind bars after allegedly demanding kickbacks from a security contractor.

Thando Matika, acting municipal manager Boy Manqoba Ngubo and acting chief financial officer Busisiwe Lubelwana appeared in the Knysna Magistrate's Court on Monday on charges of corruption, extortion and money laundering.

The trio will only get their shot at freedom next week Monday, when they are due back in court to apply for bail.

National police spokesperson Brigadier Athlenda Mathe said the three were arrested by the police's Political Killings Task Team last week Thursday, after police were told that a businessman who held a security services contract with the municipality was being asked for kickbacks to keep it.

Mathe said the businessman had already paid hundreds of thousands of rand because he feared his contract would be cancelled.

The contract was a R68m municipal security tender, and the Special Investigating Unit is investigating the municipality and how the tender was awarded.

The arrests came a day after Matika refused to give up his seat at a council meeting, and speaker Mark Willemse called for law enforcement to remove him.

The ANC removed Matika as mayor and councillor on September 18, after the IEC named him and the Ward 7 councillor as SACP candidates for the November 4 local government elections.

Matika was arrested in the same week the SACP named him as its candidate for mayor of Knysna.

Source: https://iol.co.za/news/knysna-r68m-tender-scandal-former-mayor-and-officials-to-spend-another-week-behind-bars/