The owner of Ecosolutions, the electrical company that was alleged to have supplied eThekwini Municipality with street lights, has denied his involvement in the matter.

The street lights went missing from the Springfield Depot and were found at the border of South Africa and Mozambique.

Desmond Chetty was named by a whistle-blower in a thread of emails sent to the municipality’s senior management, including City Manager Musa Mbhele and the City Integrity and Investigation Unit (CIIU).

The whistle-blower claimed that Chetty was at the centre of an intricate scheme to steal the city’s electrical products, collaborating with high officials who, in their opinion, were documenting the products as received even though they had not been delivered.

The whistle-blower, who revealed his identity, claimed to work in the same division and to have knowledge of the technique being used to pilfer electrical goods from Springfield Depot.

He added that the street lights located at the border were only given to the depot on paper which was why even now, the city has not been able to see how the theft took place without being filmed by CCTV cameras.

The allegations are already under investigation by eThekwini’s corruption fighting unit which is expected to hand over the report to the Municipal Public Account Committee at the end of the month. This was confirmed by the committee’s chairperson, Thami Xuma.

In his written response to the Independent Media, Chetty said he was unaware of any current investigation against his company, Ecosolutions, and vehemently denied any involvement in any of the alleged activities.

However, he confirmed that his company was one of the three that were contracted by the city to supply the mentioned products. He also denied that the street lights found at the border were supplied by him.

“Yes, we were one of three suppliers that were contracted to eThekwini Municipality, however, my knowledge of the said incident (theft of the street lights) is limited to media reports.

“We supplied the city with street lights against legitimate orders and that is where our involvement ended. The products in question are for public lighting. It is not intended for use in the private sector and we do not sell to the private sector.”

In November 2023, two suspects were arrested at the Kosi Bay Port of Entry when the members of the Richards Bay Serious Organised Crime Investigation unit working together with Kosi Bay Border Management Authority stopped a vehicle pulling a trailer. The vehicle was coming from South Africa to Mozambique.

At the time, Hawks KwaZulu-Natal spokesperson, Lieutenant-Colonel Simphiwe Mhlongo, said: “A search was conducted and 52 LED street lights engraved as property of the eThekwini Municipality were found. The suspects could not give a reasonable explanation on how they obtained the municipal property.

“An eThekwini Municipality official was summoned to the crime scene and he positively identified the street lights as the property of the municipality.”

willem.phungula@inl.co.za