GARDEN ROUTE NEWS - Garden Route District Municipality's Municipal Manager, Monde Stratu (47), and former Knysna Municipal Manager Sitembele Wiseman Vatala (56) made their fourth appearance in the Knysna Regional Court last Friday, 23 February, on charges of fraud, forgery and uttering.

The matter involves alleged property transfers - or rather the alleged lack thereof - between Knysna and Garden Route District Municipality worth R64m.

The case was again postponed, until 20 March, for the outcome of representations by the defence to the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA).

"In this context, representations would mean that the attorney would formally write to the NPA in which they would make certain submissions for the NPA to consider," said NPA spokesperson Eric Ntabazalila.

"Usually after considering the representa-tions, the prosecution would either further investigate and proceed with the prosecution, or decline prosecution."

After their previous court appearance, George Herald reported on 23 November 2023 that feedback was expected on formal representations that Stratu's defence submitted to the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) in September, asking that all charges against him be withdrawn.

Stratu is represented by attorney Jerome Bans, and Vatala is represented by Sebastiaan Marx of McWilliams & Elliott Incorporated Attorneys in Gqeberha.

Bans previously said the representations made in September were factual and quite comprehensive. In early December, Bans filed supplementary representations in the form of a comprehensive accounting opinion to be considered by the DPP's office. This is in addition to the representations made in September.

"We hope we have an outcome with the next court appearance in March, and of course we hope for a favourable decision - that the case will be withdrawn," said Bans.

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