- DA Limpopo welcomes the first arrest in the alleged R45 million Mogalakwena fleet tender scandal.
- Long-standing financial and procurement failures have been compounded by alleged ANC political protection and weak consequence management.
- The DA calls on the Hawks to expand the investigation to all implicated service providers and political enablers.
The DA in Limpopo welcomes the arrest by the Directorate of Priority Crime Investigation (Hawks) of a 37 -year-old suspect in connection with an alleged R45 million fraud, corruption and money-laundering investigation involving a 2022 fleet-management tender at Mogalakwena Local Municipality. The Hawks have indicated that the investigation is ongoing and that further arrests are expected.
The DA believes this arrest is particularly significant given that two vehicles linked to the controversial Emfuleni fleet tender investigation have been traced to Mogalakwena Municipality. This raises serious questions about how vehicles allegedly procured for one municipality ended up being registered or located at another, and whether there are broader procurement and fleet-management irregularities that now require urgent investigation.
This latest development comes as no surprise to the DA, given Mogalakwena’s long-standing financial and procurement failures, compounded by ANC protection that has shielded the implicated.
For years, Mogalakwena has been crippled by reckless political decisions, weak oversight and a blatant failure to enforce consequence management—allowing financial mismanagement to persist while residents bear the cost.
In November 2019, Parliament confirmed that the municipality had accumulated more than R1.7 billion in irregular and wasteful expenditure and criticised of the lack of meaningful consequence management.
Despite a Section 139 intervention and SIU investigations resulting in arrests, Mogalakwena remains mired in alleged corruption, procurement failures and a glaring lack of consequence management; the alleged irregular fleet-management tender was shortly after the administration was lifted in 2022, raising serious questions about the effectiveness of the intervention and the level of oversight exercised during the process.
We further call on the Hawks to expand their investigation to all implicated service providers and political enablers, follow the money and ensure that every person against whom there is sufficient evidence is held accountable.
It is clear that the ANC has failed to self-correct in Mogalakwena. On 4 November, residents have the opportunity to vote for the DA to demand accountability, reject the status quo and restore good governance, clean administration and consequences for wrongdoing in Mogalakwena.