Three Senior Municipal officials from Knysna in the Western Cape province were arrested by the South African Police Service SAPS political killings task team PKTT over alleged corruption linked to a security service contract on Thursday October, 1 2026. The three officials are the mayor, municipal manager and chief financial officer.
According to the reports shared by the department, officials received information that a businessman who had been awarded with a security services contract was being solicited for kickbacks in exchange for the continuation of the contract. Moreover, Brigadier Athlenda Mathe, National spokesperson from the SAPS officially confirmed the arrest of the three senior municipal officials.
Mathe further shared that the businessman had paid the hundreds of thousand pf rands to the culprits in the fear of losing the contract. He said, “It’s alleged that the businessman had already paid hundreds of thousands of rams out of fear that his security services contract would be terminated”.
The arrested officials have been identified as Thando Matika, former Knysna Mayor, Boy Manqoba Ngubo, Municipal Manager and Busisiwe Lubelwana, Chief Financial Officer. They have been charged with corruption and are expected to appear in court on Monday October, 5 2026.
Additionally, Knysa Municipal Department also confirmed the arrest of the three officials. The department shared the official statement regarding the arrest of the three officials on their official social media handle. The Knysna Municipal said, “Knysna Municipality confirms that two senior officials and a former councillor were taken into custody by the South African Police Service for questioning earlier this afternoon”.
The municipality further stated that it had no additional information at this time.
Notably, Thando Matika was removed from the position of Mayor by ANC last month on September 18, 2026. The ANC also removed the 7 ward councillor who were be in the list of candidates SACP for the upcoming local government election scheduled to tale place on next month November 4, 2026.