Former George mayor, four others to appear in court for R9-million fraud

Five people, including the former mayor of George in the Western Cape, Melvin Naik, are set to appear in the local Magistrate’s Court next month on charges of fraud and corruption amounting to R9-million.

This after, the Hawks served him and other municipal officials with court summons.

Naik allegedly offered work to a company on a planned project long before it was formally registered with the municipality.

It’s also alleged that he colluded with the municipal manager and senior personnel to appoint companies to do work under the “War on Waste” project in 2017.

The service providers allegedly received payments long before the project was formally registered.

A chain of gratifications was allegedly paid to the officials involved in the form of cash payments, holiday accommodation and donations for school functions.

The matter was reported to the Hawks for investigation in 2018 after one of the company director’s reported fraudulent and corrupt behaviour of the officials in 2018. This was due to the failure to deliver on the promises made to the companies, when the relationship between the Mayor and his councillor allegedly turned sour.

All five will appear in court on October 9th.