The Hawks have widened the raid in Newcastle by including the home of a roads contractor who reportedly won several tenders to build local roads on behalf of the northern KwaZulu-Natal municipality.

This morning, the elite crime-fighting unit pounced at the plush home of Roshan Deochand, the owner of Sizela Transport, the company that won the tenders.

According to sources, the home is also used as an office for the company, hence the Hawks pounced on it and took several documents as part of their investigation.

“The Hawks believe that there is a link between this company and one of the directors in the municipality, hence they pounced and took gadgets and documents,” one source said.

While one team was busy at Deochand’s home, another team was busy with the Municipal Manager, Zamani Mcineka, quizing him about certain projects and payments. That took almost the entire day.

The Haws have been in Newcastle since Tuesday, confiscating gadgets, documents and downloading information from the municipal servers. The raid comes after several allegations of corruption were raised before the Portfolio Committee on Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs.

Inside sources said some officials were literally held hostage as they were not allowed to leave the offices during the raid. They were even escorted when they had to go to the toilet or had to take calls.

It is said that on Wednesday morning, cleaners tried to enter the building, but they were blocked by the investigators and told that a raid was underway and they should not disturb it.

Both the Hawks and the municipality have remained mum on the raid.