R9bn down the drain: Hawks uncovers 44 corruption cases in crumbled Free State municipalities

Free State province is one of the provinces hardest hit by public sector corruption, this was bemoaned by Auditor-General Tsakani Maluleke who decried the poor state of municipalities in the province.

During her released report last week, Maluleke unpacked corruption and maladministration in municipalities, and stressed irregular expenditure countrywide, with Free State being the worst province with high cases of corruption.

The Auditor-General’s report has revealed that irregular expenditure in the province, increased from R7.6-billion to over R9-billion between 2020/21.

Maluleke furthermore, discovered that the province wasted R254-million of taxpayers’ money on consultants to improve financial outcomes.

The Hawks, a Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation (DPCI), unearthed over 44 corruption cases in 16 municipalities, where the province lost over R9-billion due to theft of public money.

While the province is still reeling from countless corruption cases, residents are subjected to unbearable conditions such as, provision of water and sanitation, shortages of waste collection compactor trucks to collect garbage and constant sewage spillages that permeates homes of residents.

In the provincial overview of municipalities involved in high rate of corruption cases, Matjhabeng municipality labelled as a ‘worst-run municipality in the country‘ topped the list with nine corruption cases followed by Maluti-A-Phofung with eight cases.

It was much-anticipated that Matjhabeng will lead the pack, as the municipality has been crumbled by the previous administration.

During the tenure of then executive mayor Nkosinjani Speelman, the municipality collapsed to the extent of not being able to run on its legs.

The municipality had a debt of just over R3.5-billion owed to Eskom and the Sedibeng Water Board, and things became deteriorating where both entities threatened to cut down their services to the municipality for failure to settle these debts.

With deep concern over corruption rife in the local government, Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs (CoGTA) delegated the provincial CoGTA spearheaded by MEC Mxolisi Dukwana to work hand in hand with the Hawks to probe the state of municipalities plagued by corruption.

Breakdown of on-going corruption cases in Matjhabeng:

There are over nine cases currently enrolled in court, where the municipality suffered a loss of over R248-million from the previous administration.

Amongst these cases, the Hawks implicated former mayor Speelman together with then acting and now current municipal manger, Zingisa Tindleni in the scandalous R200-million over a company that was contracted to the municipality to remove sewage waste.

The Hawks said this matter is still being investigated.

Also in the report, the Hawks dived deeper into the rogue tender where, Speelman alleged to have defrauded the municipality when he offered an unregulated driving school tender to his associates without following the procurement process.

Towards the end of his term, Speelman was allegedly involved in the ‘much-talk about‘ Nyakallong Storm water project which, was never seen.

Synopsis of the case as unpacked by the Hawks reveals that, an auditor at the office of the Auditor-General alleged that Matjhabeng municipality issued a tender to build a Storm water.

“There were several deviations done regarding this project and a huge financial loss was discovered amounting to R15.8-million,” read the report.

Free State has been referred as the pathology of a corrupt province.