DA fraud probe

Councillor accused of misusing money from special fund

DA PROVINCIAL leader Athol Trollip has laid a criminal complaint against one of the party’s councillors for allegedly misusing money from a discretionary fund.

DA councillor Nico du Plessis is accused of fraudulently using money from the Helenvale (Ward 13) fund.

The criminal complaint was laid on Saturday following a DA provincial executive meeting on Friday evening.

In addition to the criminal investigation, the provincial executive said yesterday that disciplinary charges against Du Plessis were under way and they had also applied to have him suspended from DA activities until the outcome of the hearing.

Du Plessis has denied the fraud allegation.

He said last night the accusation stemmed from a travel allowance for struggling students.

“The money was paid into church accounts and later distributed to the students by someone who was the coordinator,” he said.

“A pastor thought I took the money for myself.

“My party is not happy with the way it was done and claims it to be fraud.

“The coordinator paid out the funds and they [students] all received [their money] – some a bit late for which I cannot take the blame,” Du Plessis said.

However Trollip, who laid the complaint at the Gelvandale police station, said the claims were a matter of grave concern.

They had been brought to him by Pastor Douglas Joseph – a DA councillor candidate for next year’s elections.

“It is alleged that councillor Du Plessis committed fraud with regard to an application and subsequent award from his councillor discretionary fund,” Trollip said yesterday.

“I immediately called Du Plessis to account in regard to these allegations to myself, his constituency leader, Edmund van Vuuren, and the DA caucus leader, Retief Odendaal.”

The fraud charge stems from an application by the Church of Christ in Helenvale for R5 000.

“The application was approved and the funds were paid into the account of the church,” Trollip said. “It is alleged that the pastor then [with] drew the money on instruction of the councillor and gave him R4 000, resulting in the church keeping R1 000.”

He said Du Plessis could not provide a “coherent explanation” [as] to what had transpired and he was told to provide corroborating documentation and evidence to substantiate his account.

Trollip said he had then investigated the authenticity of the documents provided by Du Plessis and dismissed them as “apparently manufactured and fabricated” evidence.

“Du Plessis claimed that the money in question had been REPORT CONTINUES: FROM P1

-Gareth Wilson