Cape Town - Out of the country’s 257 municipalities, 123 were being investigated for 325 corruption cases.
Eighty of the cases were in courts, 44 pending a decision to prosecute by the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA), 10 enquiries pending decision from the NPA, 155 cases under investigation and 36 enquiries under investigation.
A breakdown of the corruption-related cases showed that North West led the pack with 64, followed by Free State with 60, Eastern Cape, 46, Gauteng 39, Mpumalanga 35, Limpopo 30, Western Cape 21, KwaZulu-Natal 19 and Northern Cape 11.
Hawks head Godfrey Lebeya disclosed these details when he, the NPA, Special Investigating Unit (SIU) and SAPS detectives briefed the local government portfolio on corruption cases in municipalities.
MPs heard that the SIU conducted 32 local government investigations from 2014 to date, with at least 19 cases completed and 13 still pending.
SIU chief investigator Leonard Lekgetho said the corruption-busting institution made 169 referrals for disciplinary proceedings and 273 referrals to the NPA for criminal prosecution.
There were 48 referrals for administrative action and R10 million was recovered.
About R1.7 billion was involved in litigation in the high courts and the SIU Special Tribunal involving 12 municipalities.
Lekgetho also said the entity was still conducting Covid-19 PPE investigations in 34 councils across the country.
The Western Cape municipalities under investigation include Cederberg, Hessequa, Kannaland, Laingsburg, Langeberg, Matzikama, Saldanha Bay and Mossel Bay.
Lekgetho said their investigations observed procurement irregularities, poor record-keeping and poor management and leadership instability, among other things, in the councils.
There was also inadequate skills and failure to investigate and recover unauthorised, irregular and fruitless and wasteful expenditure as provided for in the Municipal Financial Management Act.
“Disciplinary action cannot be recommended against officials because they resign before the SIU investigation commences or during the course of the investigation.”
Director of Public Prosecutions Rodney de Kock said there were 229 local government matters under investigation at NPA.
Eighty-eight of these cases were in court and 25 had been finalised since 2021.There were 17 VBS Bank matters under investigation. Seven of these were in court and one finalised.
A total of 173 referrals were received from the SIU, 53 under investigation, 13 in court and 29 finalised with guilty verdicts.
National Director of Public Prosecutions Shamila Batohi said law enforcement agencies would continue to do whatever to ensure accountability and certainly orange overalls for those responsible for bringing the country to the state it is in terms of the lack of services at local level.
“We come at the tail-end and it is hugely important that municipalities ensure there are system processes, ethical and strong governance,” Batohi said.
“In the coming year we are going to show more effectiveness in terms of cases that we bring to court.
“We have in the NPA enhanced internal monitoring processes.”
Cape Times