iSimangaliso’s reaction to the arrest of its officials

T he iSimangaliso Wetland Park Authority (iSimangaliso) has learned with shock of the arrest of two of its officials on allegations of corruption and extortion, as per the charge sheet. iSimangaliso has managed to source information from the lawyers for the accused, who have confirmed that the case number in respect of the above allegation is DCA381/21.

It is imperative that iSimangaliso corrects distorted facts erroneously published, and currently circulating on the media platforms.

We wish to clarify the following issues:

• According to the charge sheet, the accused is charged for an estimated amount of R600 000 – not R100 million, as was alleged in the media reports.
• There are two charges levelled against the accused, which can be summed up as follows: corruption (accepting a benefit), and extortion (through inducing fear or subjecting a service provider to become fearful).
• iSimangaliso Wetland Park Authority is not a municipality but a public entity –reporting to the Department of Forestry, Fisheries, and theEnvironment.
• Only two of the three mentioned officials are employees of iSimangaliso, Mr Caiphus Khumalo and Ms Nonku Lafuleni-Zungu. The earlier information erroneously published in media reports was not verified with iSimangaliso before publishing.