From Police Cars to Circumcisions: SIU Opens Two Tender Probes
JOHANNESBURG – Nine Mangaung municipal contracts ranging from police vehicles and a fire truck to corporate gifts and catering are heading under the microscope, while investigators have also been authorised to examine a Gauteng Health tender for voluntary medical male circumcision services.
President Cyril Ramaphosa has signed two proclamations expanding the mandate of the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) to investigate allegations of serious maladministration and unlawful conduct involving the Mangaung Metropolitan Municipality in the Free State and the Gauteng Provincial Department of Health.
The Mangaung investigation casts a particularly wide net over contracts connected to the establishment and operationalisation of the Mangaung Metropolitan Municipal Police, as well as alleged supplier overpayments reflected in the municipality’s financial statements for the year ending June 2024.
Among the contracts investigators will examine are the procurement of eight Toyota Corollas for the municipal police and a fire truck, alongside spending on branding and marketing materials, corporate gifts, catering and decorations. The investigation also extends to office upgrades for the municipal police, structural assessments of municipal buildings and the appointment of contractors for construction of trunk routes forming part of Mangaung’s Integrated Public Transport Network.
The SIU will also investigate unauthorised, irregular or fruitless and wasteful expenditure recorded during the 2022/23 and 2023/24 financial years, including whether suppliers may have been paid for services that were never delivered.
The proclamation gives investigators considerable historical reach, covering allegations between 1 October 2016 and 31 July 2026, while allowing the SIU to follow relevant conduct outside that period where it is connected to the matters being investigated.
A separate investigation will turn attention back to the Gauteng Department of Health, this time over the procurement and contracting of voluntary medical male circumcision services.
Investigators will examine the tender process and related payments to determine whether procurement was fair, competitive, transparent, equitable and cost-effective and whether officials and service providers complied with applicable legislation and National or Provincial Treasury requirements.
The investigation will also look for unauthorised, irregular or fruitless and wasteful expenditure and determine whether there were contracts where the State paid for services that were not ultimately delivered.
Importantly, the proclamations authorise investigations. They do not establish that the officials, suppliers or entities involved committed corruption or other wrongdoing. That determination will depend on what the SIU uncovers as it follows procurement records, payments and the conduct of officials and service providers.
Where wrongdoing is established, the SIU can institute civil proceedings before the Special Tribunal or High Court to recover financial losses suffered by the State. Evidence indicating possible criminal conduct can also be referred to the relevant prosecuting authorities.
For Mangaung and Gauteng Health, the proclamations now move years of procurement decisions from municipal and departmental records onto investigators’ desks. What those records reveal about everything from Toyota Corollas and corporate gifts to medical services will determine where the investigations go next.
Anyone with additional information about the Mangaung Metropolitan Municipality contracts, Gauteng Health circumcision tender or suppliers and expenditure falling within the SIU investigations can contact TownPress confidentially at press@townpress.co.za.