The first witness in the Zandile Gumede corruption trial in the KwaZulu-Natal High Court in Durban has outlined the investigation process that unfolded leading up to the arrest of Gumede and her 21 co-accused.

eThekwini City Integrity and Investigations Unit (CIIU) head Mbuso Ngcobo previously said the unit received the first complaint from an anonymous individual, who dropped off a bundle of information.

Ngcobo said the process started with CIIU officials analysing the documents and eventually concluding that there was merit in the evidence submitted.

Once that process was completed, Integrity Forensic Solutions (IFS) was commissioned to conduct a formal investigation on behalf of the eThekwini metro, Ngcobo testified.

Thereafter, Ngcobo, senior police officer Major General Kubandran Moodley and IFS director Leo Saunders signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU).

"The objective of meeting the general was because he opened cases. He wanted us to understand that it was officially a SAPS-led investigation, and that they would, from that point, interact directly with IFS on the case.

"In the MOU, it was outlined that the CIIU would hand over all its information to IFS, who would function as primary investigators with the police. Thereafter, I was not in meetings with the police or investigators. Where I was required to attend meetings, I did, but they conducted the main investigations," Ngcobo said.

He also answered questions regarding requests from the eThekwini's Municipal Public Accounts Committee (MPAC) during the investigation.

He said the MPAC and political parties requested that an interim report compiled by IFS be released. The report was handed to him in December 2018.

"I told [the Hawks investigator] that there was a request for the report. He instead wrote a letter that he said I should present to MPAC. I forwarded the letter to the secretariat in eThekwini to pass on to MPAC," he testified.

He handed the letter to the secretariat by 10 April 2019, he said.

Soon after, Ngcobo had an update meeting with the Hawks investigator and Saunders.

In that meeting, he expressed that there were also requests from the City for information contained in the report for the purpose of consequence management, Ngcobo said.

He said:

I indicated I was being requested by management in the City to act on the report so internal processes [to deal with any issues or officials] could at least commence.

"They gave me information which was intended to be used for consequence management, that was saved on a disk. I handed it over to the head of supply chain and then-chief financial officer Krish Kumar.

"I did not read the information, but I was led to believe it was extracts of the report that spoke to consequence management."

Ngcobo said at that point, he had a number of engagements with former city manager Sipho Nzuza, the third accused in the trial.

"My understanding was that he was familiar with the issues in the investigation. We had sessions with Leo Saunders and the former city manager. I thought the municipal manager was a state witness," he testified.

He said:

I was in some of those sessions, but when they had to talk, I had to leave. I gave an introduction from City manager to IFS, and from that point, he was very cooperative in the investigation process.

The State completed its questioning of Ngcobo on Wednesday, and he was expected to be cross-examined for most of day four of the trial on Thursday.

Gumede, former eThekwini councillor Mondli Mthembu, Nzuza and top eThekwini metro officials Robert Abbu and Sandile Ngcobo are accused of being chief participants in racketeering in the metro. They are charged with siphoning off more than R320 million for their personal gain in a 36-month period.