The corruption accused mayor of Nongoma local municipality in northern KwaZulu-Natal will spend five more days inside Qalakabusha prison in Empangeni before making a bail application and knowing his fate.

This is after the State indicated on Friday, November 29, that it was opposed to having Clifford Ndabandaba released on bail after he and  others were indicted in the high profile corruption case. 

No reasons were given for the reluctance to have them temporarily freed on bail. 

However, the State was not opposed to deputy mayor, Sabelo Nkosi, Speaker, Babongile Sithole and Durban businessman, Vukani Gumede, being granted bail. As a result, the court freed the three on R5000 bail.

However, Ndabandaba and former Nongoma municipal manager, Mthandeni Zungu and two others were not as lucky. They were sent back to custody for their alleged crimes. 

Their bail will be heard on Wednesday next week.  The court said the matter would be enrolled and heard by another magistrate from Pongola.

Nkosi, Sithole and Gumede were granted R5000 bail each and with strict conditions. Part of the conditions is that Nkosi and Sithole cannot set foot at the Nongoma local municipality as it is still considered an active “crime scene.”

Despite an objection by one of the lawyers of the accused that the condition was unfair as it was a place of employment where they earn a living and they could be dismissed, the court ratified the condition.

During the bail hearing, the State prosecutor told the court how service delivery grounded to a halt because of the brazen theft which, combined with other pending corruption cases, amounted to around R40 million.

Due to the corruption, the prosecutor told the court that at some point, the municipality was broke and it struggled to pay staff salaries.

Though not presented in court yet, African Times understands that part of the docket has extensive records of how they received the bribery money through their accounts. 

Sithole, who told the court during her bail application that she earns R36 000 after deductions, allegedly once received a bribe as low as R1000. 

Later she received a bribe of R105 000 from Khulekani Manqele, the supply chain manager in the municipality.

In the transactions records, Manqele was the sole distributor of the money as he was the one who also made payments to Ndabandaba and Nkosi.